Title
Update on Oakland-Alameda Estuary Bridge Project (Discussion)
Body
To: Transportation Commission
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Over the past 16 months, City staff, its consultant team, partners and stakeholders, including the City of Oakland, have made significant progress on the current planning and scoping phase for the Oakland-Alameda Estuary Bridge project (Bridge). The Bridge, when completed, will provide an alternative to the deficient Posey Tube path and will connect west Alameda to Jack London Square, Amtrak, Downtown Oakland, and two nearby Oakland BART stations.
This phase of work, called a Project Initiation Document (PID), will provide the technical foundation for the next phases the bridge design and implementation process, and is completely funded with a $1.55 million grant from the Alameda County Transportation Commission (CTC). In July 2022, the City Council authorized staff to execute two contracts, with HNTB and Arup, to develop the PID and provide community engagement, and for technical oversight, respectively.
This staff report and presentation (Exhibit 1) provides an update on the work completed to date, and next steps.
BACKGROUND
In 2009, the City developed a comprehensive Estuary Crossing Final Feasibility Study Report (Study Report) to analyze and evaluate all of the potential strategies for crossing the Oakland Estuary (Estuary) either by foot, bike, or transit. This planning effort was the first to directly analyze the feasibility of new or improved Estuary crossings, with the goal of developing crossing designs that would appeal to users, adjacent communities, decision-makers, transit providers, and funding authorities. Near-, mid-, and long-term solutions were explored, including many bridge types, improvements to the Posey/Webster Tubes, as well as bus and water shuttle services. The top recommended, long-term option was determined to be a moveable Bicycle-Pedestrian Bridge.
In October 2016, the City Council directed that sta...
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