Greenroads Composite Rating

Presidio Parkway Phase I

 

Summary

The Presidio Parkway Project is a 1.6 mile, $1.045 billion dollar, multi-phased corridor reconstruction project built over six years to improve a structurally and seismically deficient roadway of historic Doyle Drive. Construction on Phase I ($496.3 million) began in 2009 and included rethinking, redesigning, and rebuilding in and around a national treasure, the Golden Gate Recreational Area.  

Phase I rebuilt the southern access to the Golden Gate Bridge (Doyle Drive) and created a park-like connection between the Presidio and recreation areas at Chrissy Field. The new lid over Southbound Battery Tunnel makes this connection. Contracts were awarded to prime contractors C.C. Myers (Ruckman Bridge and Southbound High Viaduct) and R.L. Brosamer (Southbound Battery Tunnel). Seismic safety was achieved on the project in April 2012.

Length: 1.6 mi (6.3 lane miles)

Funders/Stakeholders: California Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration (TIGER), San Francisco County Transportation Authority (SFCTA), Presidio Trust, City of San Francisco

Owner: California Department of Transportation

Lead Design: ARUP/PB Joint Venture

Contractors: CC Myers, R&L Brosamer, Ghilloti Bros., Malcolm Drilling

Functional Class: Major Arterial

Greenroads Version: 1.5

Description

Presidio Parkway Phase I consisted of:

  • Replacing a bridge on Highway 1 north of the MacArthur Tunnel
  • Construction of the new southbound Presidio Viaduct as a replacement for Doyle Drive.
  • Construction of the first of four short tunnels between the Presidio and Chrissy Field, Southbound Battery Tunnel
  • A temporary bypass 

The project achieved seismic safety in April 2012 when traffic was moved on to the new bypass. Challenges with funding source availability for such a major capital project compelled Caltrans and the project stakeholders to deliver the work in multiple phases. Using this approach, the seismic safety goal was achieved sooner and the construction schedule and costs were substantially reduced, minimizing construction related congestion.

Features

Key elements recognized by Greenroads in the Projects’ Certification for Phase I included an extensive public involvement process with special attention paid to biological, cultural, and natural resources. The team made several good choices early on in Project development to position the Project to be successful, including specifying certain management plans for construction were in place to help mitigate the impacts of different activities throughout the work, like waste and recycling, noise control and construction quality. The Project also connects neighborhoods, communities, includes all modes of travel, and encourages tourism all within a richly diverse ecological environment. The Presidio Parkway Project achieved this with:

  • Better pedestrian and bicycle facilities connecting in, around and over highway facilities
  • Wider lanes for tour buses
  • The strategic decision to discourage freight access
  • Use of intelligent transportation systems

Caltrans kept traffic moving and access to the recreational area open throughout the Project. Additionally, the Project is designed to be durable and low maintenance – reducing future construction work and maintenance costs to taxpayers.

Lessons

Presidio Parkway Phase I is our second project to receive a Composite Rating of Bronze after completing a Pilot Project as an eligibility assessment about mid-way through construction work. A Composite Rating represents the average performance across distinctly different, separately scored portions of a transportation project. It is a great example of how to understand the concept of a Greenroads Certification boundary.

A Greenroads score is representative only of what is consistently represented and documented within a specifically defined area in space and time (Greenroads Certification boundary or a "Greenroads Project"). This definition is independent of how the work is delivered by contract or how many contractors there are involved. It is defined by a fixed perimeter, planes of work (a bridge over a street is usually 2 separate Projects for example), time from start to finish of the job, and seeks continuity and consistency of features while honoring property lines. A user of the facility can see and experience each of these projects in different ways based on its context.

Contract 1 for this project involved environmental mitigation, Contract 2 involved utility relocation, Contract 3 involved the Ruckman Bridge Replacement and High Viaduct Structures and auxilliary construction works for surface streets, and Contract 4 was the construction of the Southbound Battery tunnel. The scope of Greenroads Certification for Phase I includes:

  • Highway 1 - Ruckman Bridge Replacement
  • Highway 101 - Southbound High Viaduct
  • Highway 101 - Southbound Battery Tunnel

You can see on the map image where each of these segments start and end. In real life, (take a look at Google Street View), you can see where the railing color changes (signalling a change in the structural section) between the Ruckman Bridge segment (green railing) and the Southbound High Viaduct (orange-red railing).

Included in these scopes: environmental mitigation efforts and utility relocation, which impact wide areas throughout the whole site (from Contracts 1 and 2). Not included in the Certification were surface streets and land use treatments that were real property owned and controlled by local agencies (the City of San Francisco and the Presidio Trust). In order to include those streets and work, those owners would have needed to be involved in the decision to certify. At the point the commitment was made by Caltrans, the construction work was more than halfway done, and so the scope of Greenroads was restricted to their right of way only.

Presidio Parkway Phase I Press Release (325 kb)

Project Phasing Map (by Caltrans) October 2011