Grand Avenue Complete Streets Paving Project

• Project TypeTransportation
• Start DateNovember 1, 2021
• Project StatusIn Process

The City is restarting public outreach and design for the Grand Avenue Project in January 2025!

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About

Project Update February 2025:

OakDOT is currently engaged in studying various new roadway configurations on Grand Avenue, focusing initially on the core segment of the project from Bay Place to MacArthur Boulevard. These new configurations remove vehicle travel lanes on Grand Avenue to create a slower, calmer street, and provide roadway width for elements like separated bike lanes, transit boarding islands, pedestrian safety islands, and other features to improve safety for all on Grand Avenue while maintaining bus reliability on this vital connection to Downtown Oakland, Lake Merritt, and Grand Lake.

Upcoming Outreach (check back here for more info as events are scheduled, or join our mailing list via the green button above!):

• March 20 - City of Oakland Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Commission (BPAC) presentation and discussion
• Spring 2025: Lakeshore Farmer's Market tabling event (date TBD)
• Spring 2025: Presentation to Grand Lake Neighbors (date TBD)
• Spring 2025: Presentation to Adams Point Neighbors (date TBD)
• Spring 2025: Presentation to Grand Avenue Business Association (GABA, date TBD)
• April/May 2025: Online Survey to select a preferred roadway configuration for Grand Avenue

Please note that information from the previous Grand Avenue Outreach and Planning effort has been archived. This page will be updated with information related to the current traffic analysis and road diet decision, starting in March 2024.

Project update (November 2024): OakDOT has entered into a contract with Wood Rodgers, Inc, an engineering design consultant who will be taking the design of the Grand Avenue Complete Streets Paving Project through to 100% design and construction. OakDOT is very excited to restart public engagement and design on this project, building off the previous work done from 2022 through early 2024. The first phase of work will be traffic data collection and a road diet analysis to study the potential of reducing vehicle travel lanes on Grand Avenue to accommodate safety improvements for all roadway users. OakDOT will conduct a public outreach process in early 2025 to work with the community to come to a final decision related to the future roadway configuration of the three main segments of the Grand Avenue Project: Uptown (Broadway to Harrison), Adams Point (Bay Place to MacArthur), and the Grand Lake Business District (Santa Clara to Mandana). If you have not already done so, please sign up for email updates for the project via the green button at the top of this page to stay in the loop on this project.

Project update (May 2024): 35% concept designs are available below. OakDOT will continue to collect input and make revisions in Summer 2024 and has issued a Request for Proposals for a consultant to expand community outreach, perform traffic studies, and create a final design.

Please see the link below to view the completed 35% concept plans for the Grand Avenue Project from Broadway to Mandana. These plans include protected bike lanes in either direction on Grand for the full project corridor, along with maintaining the existing 4 vehicle lanes and center turning lane on Grand. The City's path forward for this design is to solicit and hire an engineering consultant to perform final design and construction management. This process is expected to conclude in Summer 2024, at which point the City will restart the design and outreach process.

Due to the in-depth community conversation surrounding the design elements of the project, the potential to reduce the number of traffic lanes on Grand Avenue, and the multifaceted modal impacts of this project, the first phase of this final design work will be to conduct a full Road Diet Feasibility Study for Grand Avenue that fully investigates the impact of removing one lane of traffic in each direction on Grand Avenue (the 15% concept plan, linked below, removed one lane of westbound traffic from Euclid to Bay). Once this feasibility study is complete, the City will work with community stakeholders, residents, businesses, and AC Transit to select a preferred alternative to move forward to 100% design and construction.

Project Background and Information

Grand Avenue from Broadway to MacArthur is set to be repaved by the City of Oakland's Measure KK-funded paving program.

Grand Avenue in this neighborhood also acts as a bypass or cut-through route for drivers avoiding traffic on I580, and is on the City's Bicycle and Pedestrian High Injury Network—the 6% of City streets that account for over 60% of severe and fatal collisions. How can OakDOT leverage this paving project to improve safety and access for people walking, biking, and taking the bus?

This planning and design process will be informed by the outcomes of the Grand Avenue Mobility Plan, which for the last two years has worked with the community in West Oakland, Downtown, and Adams Point to develop a long-term vision for the corridor. While this repaving project will likely not be able to fully implement the long-term vision of the Grand Avenue Mobility Plan, this coordination opportunity provides an important and timely opportunity to implement roadway safety improvements on Grand Avenue. These improvements could include:

• Pedestrian crossing improvements (pedestrian refuge islands, new crosswalks, etc.)
• Transit improvements to improve reliability of the bus, building off the recommendations of AC Transit's Grand Ave Rapid Corridors Project
• Protected bike lane treatments to separate people biking from motor vehicle traffic
• Traffic calming to slow vehicle traffic
• Curb management to address loading and operational needs
• Roadway re-striping to reconfigure travel and/or turning lanes

OakDOT staff will be conducting in-person outreach to local businesses and stakeholders in late 2021, with more events and pop-ups planned for 2022. Sign-up to our newsletter and stay connected with this project!

If you have any questions or comments, please contact the project team at grand@oaklandca.gov.

Also, check out the 27th and Lakeside Streets Project for more bike and pedestrian improvements in the area!