The Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) is getting underway with a large construction project in southern Alameda County.
Crews will replace critical track components between the South Hayward and Union City BART stations as well as build a new storage facility at the Hayward Maintenance Complex for hundreds of new Fleet of the Future cars.
BART is targeting stretches of trackway in the system that are in the greatest need of replacement and prioritizing work on those sections. This critical work will replace nearly 50-year-old track infrastructure. Many of these aging track components have been in operation since the beginning of BART service in 1972 and have outlived their design lives. Funding for the track replacement work is coming from voter-approved Measure RR. Support for the new rail car storage facility is supported in part by a $1.17-billion grant from the Federal Transit Administration. The storage facility is part of the Transbay Corridor Core Capacity Program, which will dramatically increase the number of trains BART can run through the Transbay Tube.
Part of the project will involve the construction of a retaining wall. The equipment used for this part of the project installs the piles for the wall by vibrating the piles into the ground. This has the potential to create significant noise at the work site.
Once complete, BART passengers should experience a smoother, safer and more reliable ride. The new rail car facility will bolster BART’s service to San Jose as well as help to ensure BART is maximizing the number of Fleet of the Future trains in operation.
The project will require a series of weekend track shutdowns between South Hayward and Union City. On those weekends, free buses instead of trains will carry passengers between those stations. Thirteen weekends have been scheduled for track shutdowns in South Hayward in 2021. On all these weekends free buses will replace trains and riders should plan to add 20-25 minutes to their trips. Additional shutdown weekends are expected spring through fall in 2022 but specific dates have not yet been selected.
Electrical cable replacement requires night and weekend work
Along with installing new rail components, BART will also replace the 34.5kV (kilovolt) electrical cable to ensure trains have a reliable source of traction power. Replacing these electrical cables is also an important step in allowing BART to run more trains in the future. This work will be performed primarily at night but will also require some days when train service between the South Hayward and Union City stations will be reduced to only one track. This will result in delays of 15-20 minutes for riders in that portion of the system.
