Sacramento Complete Streets Project

This Project addresses two City Council referrals for intersection safety improvements that are high-priority projects in the Pedestrian Master Plan – Sacramento Street at Addison Street (High Priority Project #4) and Sacramento Street at Virginia Street (High Priority Project #24).  The improvements at Virginia Street and Delaware Street also address Tier 1 priority projects from the Bicycle Plan.

In general, the work of this Project includes construction of new sidewalk extensions with directional curb ramps that meet the standards of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA); new pavement markings, including crosswalk, vehicular lane, and bike lane markings; a new traffic signal at the Virginia Street intersection; and dedicated left turn traffic signal phases at the University Avenue intersection to eliminate conflicts between pedestrians and left turning vehicles.

For bicyclists that are comfortable sharing the roadway with a low volume of motor vehicles, the proposed new traffic signal at the Virginia Street intersection will improve safety for bicyclists along the Virginia Street bicycle boulevard and will encourage more bicycle riders to use this route.

There will also be safety-related improvements for bicyclists that prefer to ride on a separated pathway, away from motor vehicles.  City staff have been working closely with Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) on the latter’s proposed bicycle and motor vehicle ingress and egress modifications at the North Berkeley BART station.  BART’s project will provide a needed link between two segments of the Ohlone Greenway pathway that are separated by this BART station, via dedicated bike lanes that will route bicyclists through the BART station grounds.  BART’s construction project is expected to begin several months after the start of construction on the Sacramento Complete Streets Improvements Project.

City staff hosted community meetings on January 28 and April 16, 2019 to solicit public input on the Project.  The Project design was subsequently refined, and on May 15, 2019, staff presented the Project to a subcommittee of the Transportation Commission for comment.  The Project design was refined based on comments received, and on June 20, 2019, staff presented the Project to the Transportation Commission.  The Commission was supportive of the Project, and provided additional comments, which staff used to finalize the design documents.