BART
In all honesty if you are a true nerd such as I there are some interesting details on the moving of electrical lines and the creek development that I will not include here. For those less interested in such details, making a significant investment in the on-site BART station and walkway is essential to the long term prospects of the project. In phases the BART station will get a modernized and cleaned up platform with an additional side platform to allow double the traffic coming shortly after. That seems to be a complex proposition and details regarding how that would be managed or how the additional platform would be used were not available; however the report makes it clear the objective is to deal with traffic at minimum twice as fast in post game situations as it is managed now. There will also be a widening of the current walkway, a redevelopment of the San Leandro street entrance so one does not have to “go down to go up”, a complete cover for the station and walkway, and connections of BART to the Amtrak, A/C Transit system, Oakland Airport Connector, and future streetcar system. Te report states they anticipate 34,000 trips daily through this single junction. As one would assume, this is requiring approval from BART, but the funds will be a part of the larger project which means privately funded which will be covered later.
Traffic Reconfigurations
Anyone who has ever been to a Raiders game knows how terrible the traffic around the stadium is and the delays that occur. I have lost entire days of my life waiting in those traffic lines and I am sure many of you have lost weeks if not months. With that being said, there are plans for a massive roadway reconfiguration that would modernize the surrounding roadways and ease the traffic burden immensely. It is easiest for me to simply cite the report here,
“These improvements include the following:
A. Edes Ave: Provide one additional left-turn lane on northbound Edes Avenue and on southbound Coliseum Way and modify signal.
B. Hegenberger Traffic Signals: Reconfigure – stadium to align access to project area with existng signal across Baldwin Street and modify signal.
C. Baldwin Street: Provide access between project area and Baldwin Street with the existing under crossing of Hegenberger Road.
D. Provide access between project area and Baldwin St. with the existing under crossing of Hegenberger Road.
E. 73rd Avenue: Move driveway for Amtrak station to north of the station at the existing signalized at-grade pedestrian crossing
F. 66th Avenue: Reconstruct 66th Avenue east of Coliseum Way to provide a four lane cross-section with two 300-foot left-turn lanes.”
Along with these roadway developments will be the concurrent development of the infrastructure backbone. As previously mentioned, although the site has the potential to handle the infrastructure needs from a macro sense, it has to be specifically restructured to deliver those services in the places needed and with the plans containing significant urban development it has to meet certain standards.
Finally, this is the proposed picture from the report of how the circulation at the site will be reorganized to limit congestion:
Phasing
This is a massive project with a huge scope which requires it to be broken up into many pieces. The first phase is to have both stadiums built by 2018 while the A’s play their season games at the current site and to have both of those sites built concurrently which means both would open in 2018. In order for this to occur the Raiders would most likely have to play their games elsewhere unless they can radically expand the parking lot or massively cut down on parking which means limiting tail-gaiting. I simply do not see that happening. With this would include BART improvements, associated retail, associated street improvements, and potentially the proposed airport hotel which will have a direct connection to the Airport Connector.
The second half of phase one is after the completion of the new stadium and ballpark to immediately begin the development of retail space. In order for this project to work investors need to have the capacity to generate profit year round and this is only sustainable through dynamic retail and entertainment services that operate on the backbone of the two stadiums. Phase 2 is the continued expansion of the commercial spaces beyond the area in between the stadiums, and phase 3 is the long term development of the area filling out the entire space.
Here are the provided visuals:
For some bizarre reason those images are flipped, but the first is what the site will look like after the entire first phase is completed, whereas the second is immediately following stadium and ball park completion.
As with the previous images, these two are also flipped, but you can clearly see how the proposal wants to develop the space.