In June, Albany Patch reported that, according to officials, by early July would be paved and that would be installed nearby.
Neither project is finished, so city of Albany engineering contractor Greg Jacobs explained the delays to us last week.
Between Brighton and Portland avenues, BART retrofitting was completed several months ago. Paving the greenway path should have followed, but the use of an edging material—not part of the original plans—. The edging boards are installed to make a clean separation between the asphalt path and the decomposed granite jogging shoulder, and between the shoulder and the landscaping.
In early June, the cost of edging boards had just been approved, and work appeared to be moving forward.
The delay since then has involved what type of edging material to use, Jacobs said. The city wanted to use a recycled plastic material, but a test section revealed that it warped in hot weather, and could melt next to hot asphalt.
The contractor then suggested a metal edging material, which the city rejected. The concern was that the metal edge, if exposed, could be a safety hazard.
The final solution appears to be pressure-treated wood held in place with wood stakes: "The old-fashioned way," Jacobs said, adding that he’s viewed a test section and given his OK to continue, and work is underway.
Still, "paving won’t start until August" under the current schedule, Jacobs said. The Solano-to-Dartmouth portion of the path, where the according to BART’s Jason McLean, will be paved at the same time as the section further north.
Striping
And after paving, the asphalt has to sit for a week or two before striping can be done, Jacobs said.
He said the plan is to stripe the 14-foot-wide path down the middle, for northbound and southbound traffic, with no separate lanes for bikes and pedestrians.
The , an advocacy group, has requested three lanes. “One each direction for people cycling and one for people walking,” described member Preston Jordan. “This is the configuration of the Bay Trail south of University, which seems to work much better than the more standard no-stripe or single-stripe-down-the-middle approach.”
Jacobs said traffic engineers designed the two-lane plan.
Sharrows
Also behind schedule is the installation of sharrows, the “share-the-road” pictures of a bike and two arrows, painted on the street. Many cyclists displaced from the greenway path now use Masonic Avenue, rather than the temporary path, so Albany Strollers & Rollers requested sharrows last fall, for safety.
Community Development Director Jeff Bond blamed low staffing for the delay. Jacobs added he had misunderstood the order of work being requested on Masonic. But Jacobs said he now has a striping contractor who will paint the sharrows in the next two weeks, over several days.
Temporary paths
Jacobs also reported that, when the next section of the greenway closes for BART retrofitting—from Solano to Portland—the same kind of temporary path used elsewhere on Masonic will be installed: a fenced-off section on the east side of the street, in the parking lane. The next temporary path will be signed for pedestrian use only, Jacobs said, leaving bikes to use Masonic.
Quite a few cyclists initially complained about the temporary path being too narrow, among other problems, but Albany Strollers & Rollers now supports a fenced-in path as being the best temporary solution for both cyclists and pedestrians. However, Jordan said, “We would be opposed to it (the temporary path) being off-limits to bikes.”
Learning curve
Overall, the BART retrofitting project in Albany has gone “pretty smoothly,” said BART’s Jason McLean. Albany sites were among the first retrofitting sites of the project from North Berkeley to Richmond.
“The first couple groups take a long time,” McLean said, acknowledging the delays.
Also, the local work is more complicated than other projects in the BART system, he said, because of the need to restore the greenway underneath the tracks, with landscaping and paving issues to be ironed out. McLean said future sections should progress more quickly.
Concerns about the BART project can be directed to the city's Public Works Department at 510-524-9543 or to BART's project information line for Albany, 510-412-5546, or by email to earthquakesafety@BART.gov.
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If there's something in this article you think , or if something else is amiss, call editor Emilie Raguso at 510-459-8325 or email her at albany@patch.com.
And whom did Jacobs consult before determining that he would "stripe the 14-foot-wide path (the new Ohlone Greenway) down the middle, for northbound and southbound traffic, with no separate lanes for bikes and pedestrians?" I feel comfortable saying that no users - cyclists, pedestrians, wheelchair users, skateboarders, dog-walkers, or stroller pushers - think that configuration is a safe one.
Please send a note to the City at cityhall@albanyca.org in support of the three lane option. Thanks.
I bike from Washington to EC Plaza and back daily, and 75% of pedestrians on Ohlone walk on the bike path - either right down the middle or weaving unpredictably back and forth. Even joggers, who should know better, seem to prefer putting themselves/me in harm's way to jogging on the dirt trail next to the bike path. Given that there's already a perfectly good walking path in addition to several feet of space (in most cases) on the west side of the paved bike path that pedestrians choose not to take advantage of, I can't see that any decisions made by the city will have any impact going forward - short of citing & fining citizens who fail to abide by the "bikes on the bike path, peds on the ped path" guideline. Which, notwithstanding that it's a total pipe dream, if any candidate for city council were to advocate, I would campaign tirelessly and aggressively for that candidate.
Will a bunch of young kids really respect painted lines on a path as they jostle they way to school while playing games and texting and talking to their friends all at the same time? I hope so, but kids have a way of not following directions, even when they are in their own interest. Still, I think it's a good idea. Better than mixing bikers and walkers.
The current ped path is on an area that is full of tree roots. Due to that and for other reasons that I won't go into here, the current ped path will NOT be improved. So the current conditions will remain, unsuitable for many, and it will continue to be ignored by most pedestrians. Given that, the new, wider Ohlone Greenway will be used by both cyclists and peds. Sure Michael, some users may not respect the lanes. But many will. And the only way we can all hope for safe travels by wheels and by foot is if there ARE separate lanes clearly delineated and signs. During rush hour if there is a constant stream of cyclists riding to work or BART, peds may realize that is safer to walk between the lines. Telling ped and cycling traffic to mix is asking for accidents. We wouldn't do this on sidewalks, why would we do that here?
(kidding)
Although the ideal solution is for pedestrians to use the walkway, pragmatically we know that most pedestrians use the bike lane for brevity; because of this fact I hope the City and BART reconsider their decision to only have two lanes.
44 of 50 users were using the intended lanes. The only exceptions were four cyclists who were riding side-by-side with a friend and two dog walkers. So given three lanes, it really seems that people use them and there's safe separation between cyclists and pedestrians (especially when the pedestrian lane is next to the gravel shoulder, as should be the case on the new greenway path). A similar count on an open stretch of the Greenway showed that: 16 of 25 users were in the intended lanes. Most pedestrians use what is intended to be the bike path. This argues strongly for striping the new pathway with three, not two lanes, since the above count suggests that the majority of people will use the lanes as intended when they are provided.
http://albany.patch.com/articles/ohlone-greenway-replanting-starts-in-february
Lying on the north end of Albany Beach are two recycled plastic railroad ties. How can they possibly be making railroad ties, which, (in their 'blackness' appear to be wood) out of recycled plastic, which has survived on our beach for the past 4 years!
"it warped in hot weather, and could melt next to hot asphalt. " The header-board merely warped in hot weather, but the concern was it would melt when hot asphalt was poured next to it, during installation. That is to say, not sun-heated asphalt, but liquid asphalt.
Regarding three lanes painted on the 'Green Way' ( "There should be three lanes, with one marked VERY CLEARLY for pedestrian use.)" Do you ever commute by bicycle? You too easily are painting a recipe for disaster. I can see the 6-year olds, and ladies on aluminum walkers carefully walking in their lanes, next to the 25 mph bicycle lane! What have you been smoking?!