Title
Recommendation to Receive an Update on Construction Impacts from the Oakland Alameda Access Project. (City Manager)
Body
To: Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council
From: Jennifer Ott, City Manager
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Led by the Alameda County Transportation Commission (Alameda CTC), the Oakland Alameda Access Project (OAAP) is a $152 million regional project to improve connectivity between Interstate 880 (I-880), Interstate 980 (I-980), and the cities of Oakland and Alameda. The OAAP will improve freeway access for Alameda residents, visitors and businesses as well as increase safety and equity for people in Oakland Chinatown. The Alameda CTC, City of Oakland, and the City of Alameda (City) have collaborated on this project, in some form, for over twenty years. It is an exciting milestone that the project is now close to its construction phase, and City staff are very appreciative of all the work leading up to this moment.
A major project like this cannot be constructed without street closures necessitating detours, and temporary Webster and Posey Tube closures have always been expected. That said, recent construction plans estimate two years of continuous single-lane closures in the Posey Tube (Alameda to Oakland) and eight months in the Webster Tube (Oakland to Alameda), surpassing expected intermittent, off-peak tube closures. City staff raised substantial concerns with Alameda CTC about the delays that long-term, continuous lane closures could cause for bus riders and auto travelers, impacting Alameda residents, visitors, employees, and business owners. City staff have held meetings with staff from Alameda CTC, AC Transit, and the City of Oakland to discuss this.
City staff are proactively seeking solutions to minimize and mitigate both Tube closures and preparing to support Caltrans with clear and extensive community-wide communication plans related to construction impacts. The City has contracted with transportation engineering and communications firms to review OAAP construction documents to seek technically sound recommendations for the project to be constructed with temporary, off-peak Tube closures and to support robust communications planning.
BACKGROUND
The OAAP is an important project that will facilitate a more efficient connection for vehicles to and from I-880; reduce traffic and safety impacts in Oakland Chinatown, an equity priority community; and add a new, narrow bicycle/pedestrian pathway in the Webster Tube. Currently, the Webster and Posey Tubes are the only vehicular connection between the west side of Alameda and downtown Oakland. Travelers need to use circuitous routes through Oakland neighborhoods to connect to Interstate 880 (I-880). OAAP proposes a new, dedicated onramp (the “horseshoe”) to connect the Posey Tube to I-880, improving pedestrian safety and reducing freeway-bound traffic on local roads in these equity priority Oakland communities.
This project also includes improvements to the Jackson Street onramp and offramp, Sixth Street, Webster Tube entrance from 5th & Broadway, adjacent streets in Alameda and Oakland, a new 4-foot pathway for people walking and biking in the Webster Tube, plus the elimination of the Broadway off-ramp. Construction plans are currently being finalized and the project is expected to begin construction by mid-2025 and be completed in 2028.
Exhibit 1, an Alameda CTC presentation from February 2024, provides an overview of the project design and schedule, though the construction schedule and staging information is somewhat out of date.
For over 20 years, the City of Alameda has engaged with Alameda CTC and the City of Oakland to develop the project, and has been involved with project scoping, planning, environmental, and design phases. The City of Alameda City Council considered this project in November 2020 and the Mayor submitted a letter of support to Alameda CTC supporting the project overall (Exhibit 2).
Alameda CTC’s project web page provides additional information:
<https://www.alamedactc.org/programs-projects/highway-improvement/oakland-alameda-access-project>
DISCUSSION
Alameda CTC is finalizing construction plans in its Plans, Specifications, and Estimates package (PS&E), with a deadline to present a final construction bid package to the California Transportation Commission by December 2024 in order to receive $70 million in funding. These documents specify construction staging expectations, but the detailed timeline will only be finalized, likely in early 2025, after a construction firm is under contract.
The currently proposed construction impacts anticipated in the PS&E would be substantial for Alameda. While earlier documents spoke of only temporary and nighttime closures in the Webster and Posey Tubes, the Alameda CTC now expects the following:
• Continuous Single-Lane Tube Closures
o Posey Tube: two-year continuous single lane closure
o Webster Tube: 8-month continuous single lane closure
o The two closures overlap by 5 months.
• Intermittent Full Tube Closures
o Posey Tube: 23 nighttime closures and 8 full weekend closures spread over two years
o Webster Tube: 10 nighttime closures spread over six months (no full weekend closures)
City staff have repeatedly raised significant concerns with the Alameda CTC about the magnitude of the continuous single lane closures, and discussed these concerns with AC Transit and City of Oakland staff. Alameda is an island city with limited ingress and egress points. Such a lengthy closure could cause major, ongoing issues described below and further detailed in Exhibit 3.
• Slow down AC Transit buses serving Alameda. Congestion in the Tubes, and traffic detouring, could slow all buses serving Alameda, but the buses that run through the Tubes - including Alameda’s 51A trunk line - would be most impacted. Slowing buses without additional buses reduces headways, causing bus riders to endure longer waits in addition to longer rides.
• Cause major congestion. Congestion in the Tubes would also slow down commuters and visitors traveling into and out of Alameda.
• Impact West End businesses. There are 380+ businesses in West Alameda. Most weekend visitors to West Alameda businesses come from outside of Alameda: over 75% for Spirits Alley, 67% for Alameda Landing, and 60% for WABA.
City staff are taking the following significant steps to address this issue:
• Seek solutions to minimize Tube closures. The City contracted with the engineering consulting firm HNTB to provide comments and markups on Alameda CTC’s final 100% PS&E package, including the Transportation Management Plan, on August 30, 2024. This includes a close review of the OAAP’s lane closure analysis and construction staging plans. HNTB’s analysis finds that peak-hour lane closures can be reduced. For example, by prioritizing construction of certain components first, HNTB determined that the Posey Tube continuous single-lane closure could be significantly reduced. And for the Webster Tube, by constructing specific components first and during the night time hours would allow both lanes to be safely opened during daytime hours. Alameda CTC faces budget constraints that its staff stated make these shifts difficult in this large, complicated project. Prior to September 26 when the Alameda CTC takes an action on the project, the full engineering team, including consultants for Alameda CTC and the City, is holding a meeting to further discuss any possible methods such as these to reduce peak-hour lane closures in the Tubes.
• Support public communication. Communicating with Alameda residents, business owners, employees, and visitors will be crucial regardless of the final construction plans. Given the magnitude of the project, it is important that communication begin well in advance of the actual construction. City staff is working to contract with an expert firm to support Alameda’s role in communications and to help review the OAAP communications plan when available (Caltrans will lead communications and Alameda CTC is developing early-engagement fact sheets). City staff and consultants will coordinate workshops and information dissemination for Alameda business owners and community members.
The recent timeline includes:
• On August 28, City staff presented an update on OAAP construction impacts to the City Transportation Commission.
• On August 30, staff submitted a letter to Alameda CTC and Caltrans outlining the City’s concurrence with the project, conditioned on modifying the construction closures to reduce the length of continuous one lane closures in favor of more evening closures (Exhibit 3).
• On September 5, City of Alameda presented an update to the City of Alameda - AC Transit Interagency Liaison Committee.
• On September 5, City staff met with Alameda CTC staff to discuss our concerns with the magnitude of the closures and to understand the design elements of the project that Alameda CTC feels require the continuous two-year closure of the Posey Tube, and eight-month closure of the Webster Tube.
• On September 9, the Alameda CTC Programs and Projects Committee (PPC) met to consider advancing the project to the construction phase. At the request of Mayor Ezzy Ashcraft who chairs the PPC, the committee directed Alameda CTC staff to take no action on this item, but to advance it to the full Commission at its September 26 meeting. This will allow recommendations from technical meetings on how to reduce the construction impacts of the project to be considered by the full commission. Alameda CTC staff have emphasized to City staff and the PPC that there are critical funding deadlines this fall, and any delays in the project schedule risk jeopardizing state funding.
• On September 16, City and HNTB staff presented construction staging proposals to reduce peak-hour lane closures to a meeting at Alameda CTC that also included AC Transit, OakDOT, and the OAAP technical team.
• Before September 26, City staff, Alameda CTC, and consultant staff will have a more technical engineering discussion to evaluate any design and construction alternatives to reduce construction impacts.
• On September 26, the Alameda CTC’s full commission will consider items necessary to advance the project to the construction phase, including allocating $14 million for final permitting, design, and administration; allocating $8.5 million as contingency; and authorizing a consultant contract amendment.
• City staff have engaged the Chamber, West Alameda Business Association (WABA), Downtown Alameda Business Association (DABA), Blue Rise (Alameda Marina Village Business Park) and North River (Alameda Center/Sila Nanotechnologies) to share information about the proposed construction closures. The Chamber, DABA and WABA have invited Alameda CTC to present to their boards in September. City staff will be present at these meetings.
• On October 1, OAAP construction impacts presented to City Council.
Once constructed, the OAAP will benefit people in Alameda and Oakland and improve equity for our Oakland Chinatown neighbors. It has been planned for many years and merits implementation. City staff are working towards minimizing project construction impacts and ensure our community is informed and prepared for them.
ALTERNATIVES
• Receive an update and provide direction to staff.
FINANCIAL IMPACT
The City is expending a combination of funds from Measure BB Multimodal, Non-Departmental Budget, and Base Reuse and Economic Development to cover contracts with HNTB (up to $70,000 for engineering analysis) and HDR ($25,000 for communications support). No additional budget appropriations are necessary.
MUNICIPAL CODE/POLICY DOCUMENT CROSS REFERENCE
City Strategic Plan Priority to Invest in Alameda’s Transportation, Infrastructure & Economy
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW
Receiving an update from staff is not a “project” requiring environmental review under CEQA. OAAP has gone through its own environmental review process.
CLIMATE IMPACT
The climate impact of lane closures during construction is likely to be mixed. Long waits and long rides on AC Transit bus service could discourage transit use, increasing greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs). Travel delays will push some drivers to opt out of discretionary trips due to travel delays or switch to ferry service where possible, reducing GHGs. But those who do drive would emit more GHGs on a longer-duration trip.
RECOMMENDATION
Receive an update on construction impacts from the Oakland Alameda Access Project.
Respectfully submitted,
Jennifer Ott, City Manager
By,
Lisa Foster, Transportation Planning Manager
Financial Impact section reviewed,
Margaret O’Brien, Finance Director
Exhibits:
1. Alameda CTC Oakland Alameda Access Project Overview Presentation
2. November 2020 OAAP Support Letter from the Mayor on behalf of City Council
3. August 2024 OAAP City of Alameda Letter of Concurrence with Conditions of Support