The Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) Board has authorized the general manager to award an $11.3-million contract to modernize the Powell St. Station.
The modernization includes reconfiguring and reopening bathrooms at the station, moving ticket vending machines in the middle of the concourse near the entrance to Westfield San Francisco Center to improve line-of-sight, installing LED lighting on the platform, installing five-foot glass fare barriers and relocating the existing fare gates to improve passenger flow.
The board also approved two options: replacing platform seating and flooring and an accessible ramp at Hallidie Plaza. Proceeding with the two options is contingent on identifying $3.7 million in funding for the options.
The $11.3-million base contract will be funded by a combination of Prop 1B and Prop K funds as well as a significant contribution from the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency.
The contract will be awarded to ProVen Management, Inc. of Oakland. At this point, BART says it’s too early to have an anticipated start and completion date for the modernization project.
More parking and bike/pedestrian improvements at Antioch Station
The BART Board also approved construction of about 850 additional parking spaces at the Antioch Station, which already has more than 1,000 spaces.
The board authorized the general manager to award a contract to build the additional parking and to make improvements to the existing station area. Those improvements include better bicycle and pedestrian access by relocating the on-street bike lane within Slatten Ranch Road to an off-street multi-use path.
The existing parking lot will also be improved to facilitate smoother traffic flow through the station area by relocating the drop-off area and widening the bus lane.
The $9.9-million contract will be awarded to O.C. Jones & Sons, Inc. of Berkeley. Work is anticipated to begin next March with a goal of completing the project in early 2021.
New Sunday Service Plan to Begin in February
The board also approved a change order to an existing contract for cable replacement, enabling a new Sunday service plan. Beginning Feb. 11, two-line service into San Francisco will return. In addition to the Yellow Line, the Blue Line will once again offer Transbay service on Sundays instead of turning back at MacArthur Station.
How far the Blue Line will travel on Sundays depends on whether single tracking will be required on any particular Sunday for the cable replacement project that began earlier this year.
On Sundays when there is no single tracking, the Blue Line will run to Daly City. For single-tracking Sundays, approximately half of all Sundays for the next two to three years, the Blue Line will travel from the East Bay to Montgomery Street Station and then turn back. For customers on the Blue Line who are travelling farther south, they will be able to transfer to a Yellow Line train at Montgomery St.
The trade-off for the two-line service will be 24-minute headways, four minutes longer than the current Sunday service plan. BART staff believes this service plan will provide greater predictability and resilience in the event of a service delay.
