AC Transit East Bay Bus Rapid Transit Project

The project is sponsored by AC Transit, which has secured $178 million to construct the first East Bay Area Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) facility.  The BRT will operate almost exclusively in dedicated bus lanes along a 9.5-mile route starting at the BART station in San Leandro and terminating at the City of Oakland downtown transit center.  The proposed BRT will operate nearly 24 hours per day and will have bus headways of approximately 5-10 minutes.  The key to maintaining the BRT schedule and short headways will be a sophisticated traffic signal priority system to coordinate the +100 signals along the BRT route.  The Oakland City Council approved the project (with specific conditions) allowing AC Transit to operate the BRT facility within the City street right of way.

For five years, Garrett Gritz, with Diablo Engineering Group and previously with RBF Consulting, provided program management and project coordination services for this high profile East Bay transit project.  Mr. Gritz’s team provided technical project coordination services across almost all departments within the City of Oakland. These services include facilitating and performing plan, specification and estimate reviews; reviewing and assuring the City that the Conditions of Approval are being attained; attending all coordination meetings with AC Transit and then conveying technical information back to the City team members; assisting the City with the preparation of written technical communications and staff reports; and facilitating the reconciliation of design issues across multiple disciplines and agencies.  Mr. Gritz represented the City of Oakland Planning Department and collaboratively back-checked and resolved design issues associated with the design plans.

In August 2016, Mr. Gritz transitioned from the design phase into the construction phase, specifically supporting AC Transit construction management team.