Central Fwy. Connection Coming; New Boulevard will take Traffic to Freeway at Market St.

By George McConnell

The new Octavia Boulevard is currently scheduled to open Sept. 9, according to Jose Luis Moscovich, executive director of the San Francisco County Transportation Authority.

What ended with a ceremonial tap by a golden sledgehammer wielded by Mayor Willie Brown in March 2003, will then recommence, and more than 40,000 cars a day will once again exit the Central Freeway and snake their way through Hayes Valley and up Fell Street. Ribbon cutting ceremonies are currently in the planning stage, said Moscovich.

The six-lane tree-lined boulevard includes two one-way lanes designated for local traffic and four that will move traffic on and off the Central Freeway, reconnecting with the popular Fell and Oak street connections that were lost after the 1989 earthquake. Studies indicate that it will take cars an extra two to three minutes to get to Fell Street, or onto the freeway from Oak Street, via the new route. More than 47,000 cars travel down Oak every day, according to Caltrans.

"This has been a long and excruciating process, and we'll have to see how traffic works out," said Patricia Walkup, co-chair of the Hayes Valley Neighborhood Association Transportation Planning Committee.

"An added bonus for commuters is that they will get to enjoy the beauty of the new boulevard, and in the case of traffic tie-ups, they can opt to exit the boulevard and use other routes to get to their destination," Walkup said.

In the making since 1996, the half-mile-long boulevard represents one of the more contentious and expensive road projects in San Francisco's history. Construction costs for the roadway exceeded $70 million. The project was also the subject of three hard-fought ballot measures before the issue was finally settled.

The quake that rattled the Bay Area on Oct. 17, 1989 put in motion a heated debate on the safety of elevated freeway systems, particularly the Embarcadero Freeway and Fell and Oak Street connector ramps of the Central Freeway. The SF Board of Supervisors appointed a task force after the earthquake to study alternatives to the freeway. The ramps were the remaining vestiges of a system of elevated freeways designed in the '50s to criss-cross the City. The system was eventually abandoned in the '60s because of strong opposition.

Because they served as vital links between the eastern and western sides of the city, the debate over their future pitted neighborhood against neighborhood with the issue going to the polls three times. The debate finally ended in 1999 with the passage of Proposition I by a vote of 54 percent to 45 percent.

Recently, the Board of Supervisors rejected an attempt by Hayes Valley activists to knock the freeway down between Market Street and Bryant Street, deciding instead to leave the freeway's terminus at Market Street as the voters approved.

"We wanted to get the freeway knocked back further, but politics prevented it," Walkup said.

She said the new boulevard has served to be more than just a replacement of the old roadway - with the demise of the elevated portion, the surrounding neighborhoods are experiencing a revival. "There is a lot more light and less noise and pollution now. When the freeway was up, the roar of cars was so great you couldn't hold a conversation when you stood near it and it was a magnet for crime. I feel sorry for the people in the South of Market area. Freeways are a blight on the city," said Walkup, a resident of Hayes Valley since 1992.

"Our neighborhood is on fire with development now. There are currently two large condo projects scheduled, one at Market and Laguna and another at Grove and Gough," she said.

In the construction deal struck with Caltrans, San Francisco was deeded more than seven acres of freeway right-of-way, in exchange for shouldering the cost of building the new five-block boulevard. Close to 1,000 units of new market-rate and affordable housing are planned for the deeded acreage, according to the Hayes Valley Neighborhood Association.

"The removal of the Central Freeway has given us a unique opportunity to think creatively about new housing opportunities," said Mayor Gavin Newsom, when he announced the winner of the Octavia Boulevard Housing Design Contest June 13. More than 160 entries were received from design professionals around the world.

On June 1, he dedicated Hayes Green, a large landscaped commons located on Octavia Boulevard between Fell and Hayes streets.

"We don't want to inconvenience people in the west end, and we want them to get to their destination quickly and safely. This is not only good for our neighborhood but for the entire City," Walkup said.

To learn more about the Octavia Boulevard Project and the specific date it opens, visit the Web site at www.octaviacentral.org or call (415) 554-5440.