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Ohlone Greenway Safety Improvements

Team Members: Diablo: Jennifer Harmon (Project Manager), Garrett Gritz (QA/QC)

Subconsultants: Fehr & Peers (traffic/signals/lighting)

Services:

Multi-use path, Pedestrian Lighting and Rapid Rectangular Flashing Beacons, ADA On-street Parking Analysis, Tree Replacement, and Pedestrian Improvements

Project Objective: 

The Ohlone Greenway is a highly frequented shared-use path and one of the Three Major Trails (part of the East Bay Greenway) as identified by the Alameda County Transportation Commission (“Alameda CTC”), which is administering grant funds for this Project.  The southern Project limits are intended to coincide with the northern limit of Bay Area Rapid Transit’s (“BART’s”) upcoming work to modernize their segment of the Ohlone Greenway which extends southward to the North Berkeley BART station.

The City’s goal is to widen approximately one mile of the pathway and provide safety improvements at the following roadway crossings: Virginia Gardens: Cedar, Rose, Hopkins, Peralta, Gilman and Santa Fe. The project estimates that were prepared prior to 2017 in order to obtain the Alameda CTC grant funding were quite low when compared to today’s construction bid prices. For this reason, the Diablo Team put together alternatives for cost saving measures and a comprehensive 35% level design and cost estimate that enabled the City to obtain additional funding through the Safe Routes to Transit program. Diablo assisted the City in outreach efforts, responding to extensive comments from the community, AC Transit, the Berkeley Fire Department and the Parks Department, including the City arborist. Some felt that the project wasn’t doing enough to improve the width and conditions for a path that must accommodate both cyclists and pedestrians, while others felt that any impacts to the trees and other natural landscape were not worth the improvements provided.