Major Makeover for Ohlone Greenway, In "Baby Steps"

Significant changes are coming to El Cerrito’s over the next few years, including merging the pedestrian and bicycle paths into a single path, better lighting and landscaping, and flashing crosswalks. But users of the popular 2.7-mile trail traversing the city will first have to weather the ordeals of construction.

Just as BART has been doing , it also needs to work on each of the columns supporting the track between the stations. The local work is part of  its $1.2 billion, 10-year Earthquake Safety Program due to conclude in 2014. The retrofit project aims to better prepare the parts of the BART system built between 1972 and 1976 to withstand a major earthquake.

BART will be responsible for repairing the damage it causes to El Cerrito’s linear park, but rather than having it simply replicate the existing configuration, the city opted to develop an updated master plan for the Greenway.

“We were aware that BART would be doing a retrofit and that it would disturb the Ohlone Greenway," explained Yvetteh Ortiz, city engineering manager. "We saw it as an opportunity to upgrade the Ohlone Greenway.”

After a series of meetings to get public input, and building on an earlier plan developed in 2005, the Ohlone Greenway Master Plan was adopted by the City Council in June 2009.

The document is the city’s overall vision for the Greenway rather than a detailed plan, explained Ortiz, and will be “carried out in baby steps as funding arises.” The city has already secured funds for several projects along the Greenway and will continue to look for funding for additional projects.

The city doesn’t know the specific timeline for the BART retrofitting work along the Greenway in El Cerrito yet, but it is expected to occur over the next three years. Ortiz said BART won’t work on two adjacent blocks at the same time, though there could be more than one worksite somewhere in town at once. Users of the path should expect to be detoured off each section of the Greenway that is under construction to the next block but will be given plenty of notice, she said. The work on each section is expected to take three to nine months, depending on the length of the block.

To meet its obligation to repair the damage it does and compensate the city for use of land for a staging area for its construction work, BART will construct a new, single 14-foot-wide path to replace the 8-foot-wide bicycle path and the pedestrian path. Many walkers already use the bicycle path rather than the pedestrian one because it is straighter and lines up better with crosswalks, Ortiz said. Some sections of pedestrian walkway that veer off to special locations like the library will be retained. BART will also be responsible for replacing basic landscaping.

Most of the par course on the Greenway will be retained for now because the city found that it does get some use and there are no funds currently to replace it, Ortiz said. between Potrero Avenue and Blake Street is far enough away from the BART tracks that it will not be affected, but the Itaya Park play structure north of Manila will need to be torn down and replaced.

Another Ohlone Greenway improvement that has already been funded will provide for the installation of in-pavement flashing crosswalks at the seven busiest of the 14 Greenway street intersections and two nearby sites.  The crosswalks will be similar to two recently installed on San Pablo Avenue, one at Madison Avenue and the other at Lincoln Avenue.

The Ohlone crossings are beings funded primarily by a $529,290 federal grant from the Highway Safety Improvement Program. The flashing crosswalks will be at Fairmount Avenue, Central Avenue, Stockton Avenue, Moeser Lane, Potrero Avenue, Hill Street, and Cutting Boulevard. Flashing crosswalks will also be installed on Central Avenue at Liberty Street next to a Plaza BART parking lot and Hill Street at the Del Norte BART parking lot entrance.

About $100,000 from an Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant from the California Energy Commission will pay for most of the cost of new LED lights along the entire length of the Greenway. The 134 lights are intended to make the Greenway more attractive and safer, and save on energy and maintenance costs. Many of the lights they replace, according to a May 16 report to the council, “are rusted, damaged, and near the end of their useful lives.”

A $904,000 grant from Proposition 84 Urban Greening Projects will fund improvements on the Greenway from Fairmount Avenue south to the Albany border that are both environmentally friendly and make the area more appealing to pedestrians. Melanie Mintz, the city’s environmental services division manager, said the project has not yet been designed and that public input will be sought. But she said it will include planting natives and removing non-natives and improving the riparian habitat. It will likely include better access for pedestrians headed to the El Cerrito Plaza.

Toward the other end of town, Safeway will make improvements on the section of the Greenway between Blake and Hill streets, next to where it is due to open a new store in August. According to the city’s website, in addition to deeding the Redevelopment Agency nearly an acre of land at the corner of San Pablo Avenue and Hill Street for future transit-oriented, mixed-use development, “Safeway has also provided $487,000 to the City, which will be used to add a pedestrian route from the Del Norte BART Station, and make significant improvements to the Ohlone Greenway to improve accessibility and circulation, and complement the store.”