BKF has been selected by the City of Oakland to provide civil engineering and transportation services for the 8th Street Corridor Improvement project. The project proposes to prevent pedestrian collisions on a high-injury corridor along 8th Street by protecting pedestrians at the 8th Street and Harrison Street intersection, where there has been the greatest number of severe and fatal crashes along the corridor, by adding a new pedestrian scramble and floating curb extensions. Additionally, the project will expand intersection safety for pedestrians on 8th Street at Webster Street and Franklin Street by adding floating curb extensions to the existing pedestrian scrambles.
The City also is concerned with protecting both pedestrians and bicyclists through intersections with bike facilities by either adding paint-and-post protected intersections or by upgrading existing paint-and-post protected intersections and improving ADA accessibility along the corridor. The corridor improvement project will also consist of new and updated traffic signals, bike lane upgrades, new and upgraded pedestrian lighting, expanding bus layover zones and transit stop amenities, sidewalk amenities, improved wayfinding signage, and traffic calming measures. The design efforts will address long-standing conflicts and safety issues through corridor safety improvements in alignment with City plans and community priorities.
Corridor Improvements for the Community
The City of Oakland is the county seat for the County of Alameda and the most populous city in Alameda County. Oakland is approximately 78 square miles and serves a population of over 400,000 people. Through this corridor improvement project, the City hopes to improve transportation choices with improved access to transit and transit reliability, and to ultimately improve access to jobs, education, and needed services, especially to historically underrepresented and low-income communities. For this corridor improvement project, the City will continue to have a robust engagement with community and partner agency stakeholders, focusing primarily on engaging with residents, especially low-income residents, key community stakeholders, seniors, people with disabilities, local businesses, transit riders and with the two primary transit providers in the area, AC Transit and BART.
The Corridor Improvements Team
BKF is excited to support the City on this project. BKF’s expertise with complete streets corridor projects and with the City of Oakland in particular, make us uniquely qualified to ensure a seamlessly integrated project. BKF has completed over 1,200 transportation projects since 2000, 60 of which have been within the City of Oakland. This includes such projects as the LAMMPs Phase 1 project, the 14th Street Safe Routes in the City project, the Fruitvale Alive! project, the roadway design improvements near Donohoe Street, and various pavement rehabilitation projects. BKF’s completed projects are a testament of our commitment to improve pedestrian and bicycle safety and connectivity throughout the City and improve access to transit services by BART and AC Transit.
Supporting BKF in this endeavor will be a team of highly qualified and skilled subconsultants. Fehr & Peers will be providing traffic support, YEI Engineering will be providing electrical and lighting support, Cupples Keller Designs will be providing landscape architecture and public outreach, John A Martin & Associates will be providing structural engineering support, Aliquot will be providing utility coordination support, Parikh Consultants will be the geotechnical lead, and Geronimo will be providing stormwater & hydrology support. BKF has strong and extensive working relationships with the firms listed and is privileged to be working with them once more on such a monumental project.
