Mess on Van Ness enters final phase
Officials say one more year for $ 309 million project
“You can tell they’re about to be done ... but every day is tough for me.”
Haytham Hassan, owner of Helmand Palace on Van Ness near Green Street
In a year where San Francisco has been turned upside down in too many ways, one thing seemingly has not changed — the tornup confusion that is Van Ness Avenue, where a makeover that began in 2016 shows no obvious signs of ever coming to an end.
But even as jersey barriers and asphalt patches proliferate on one of the city’s major boulevards and while open traffic lanes shift from week to week and block to block, officials say the final phase of the $ 309 million project has arrived. Not only that, it’s picking up speed.
“A year from now, Van Ness will look a lot more settled,” Jeffrey Tumlin, director of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, said last week. “Everything will be wrapping up.”
This can’t come too soon for people who regularly encounter what is titled the Van Ness Improvement Project, and was originally scheduled to open in 2019. Instead, only in the past month have crews started to work on the reason the project exists — the creation of a pair of fully protected bus rapid transit lanes in the middle of the 125footwide roadway. No automobiles or trucks will be allowed in the lanes; instead, Muni and Golden Gate Transit buses will control the traffic lights and make nine stops along the 2mile route between Market and Lombard streets.
The overhaul is also intended to make Van Ness into the grand centerpiece that has been envisioned since it was first mapped in 1856.
Sidewalks are being widened. The entire road will be repaved.
There will be new street lamps end to end, and hundreds of new trees will be planted. Fewer parking spaces, but a more unified air to a promenade where the old mix of car dealerships and retail attractions is giving way to multistory housing and medical services.
The scene today, though, continues to feel like a construction zone.
At the intersection with Sutter Street, for instance, orange jersey barriers at all four corners send pedestrians skittering into the street. Midway, additional barriers conceal the freshly poured curbs that outline where a boarding island will be located.
Two ragged but determined gum trees remain amid the construction, precariously preserved.
Hints of a more orderly future are found on the east side of Van Ness, where dappled, bricklike pavers line the curbs of several blocks. On some of these blocks, the final concrete pavement has been poured. But many corners meet the street with crude slopes of asphalt, rather than the careful curbs that will ease passage for people in wheelchairs or with poor vision.
Vaguely historic forestgreen lamp poles are being installed that hold both traffic lights and sidewalk lighting. The old posts remain on squat concrete perches alongside them until one system can be exchanged for the other.
Even before the arrival of the coronavirus, many businesses along the route had closed permanently. For those that survive, the conditions remain challenging at best.
“You can tell they’re about to be done with the construction, but every day is tough for me,” said Haytham Hassan. He owns the Helmand Palace on Van Ness near Green Street.
Hassan purchased the Afghani restaurant in 2015. He has depleted his savings since then and took a second job to hold on — as a Muni driver, ironically, often driving the 49 Van Ness/ Mission up and down Van Ness.
“It’s a scary road,” Hassan said. “They keep moving traffic right to left.”
The delays that added two clamorous years to the project trace back to the city’s “dig once” approach.
The idea makes total sense: If you’re going to tear up an artery, upgrade whatever is below the surface as well. So before work began on the bus lanes and overall beautification, contractors tackled the underground water and sewer lines.
That became a slowmotion nightmare, since much of the aged piping uncovered was mapped incorrectly, if at all. Full replacement of the system wasn’t completed until this June — nearly 9 miles of new pipes in all, along with 80 storm drains and 187 maintenance holes.
The transportation agency concedes that the strain caused by the upgrades is real.
“We understand all this has been a real challenge for residents and business owners,” said Kristin Holland, a spokeswoman for the agency. “It’s good to enter a more visible stage of work.”
Tumlin became director of the transportation agency last December, long after work had begun. The one change he has made along Van Ness is to shift priorities so that sidewalks are restored as quickly as possible.
“We’ve changed the sequencing a bit,” Tumlin said, emphasizing that this will not push back the completion date overall. “We’ve accelerated the improvements to the sidewalks to minimize impacts to pedestrians and businesses. Traffic is a much smaller concern because of COVID19. Business survival is a lot bigger.”
The other initiative — as seen in signs posted on lampposts and the weekly construction updates online — is to step up efforts to try to keep people informed about the everchanging state of the avenue.
“San Franciscans are urban creatures,” Tumlin mused. “We understand that things are messy, but we need to know what’s about to happen — and that there’s a reason it’s happening.” Tumlin paused. “That said, we’ve got to get this project done,” he said.