Title: Construction Phasing 
Phase: Startup
Category: Management
Date: June 2023

1. Background

Description of The Van Ness Bus Rapid Transit (VNBRT) Project – The Van Ness Bus Rapid Transit (VNBRT) project was a civic improvement project that featured San Francisco’s first BRT system, intended to provide a solution for improving transit service and to perform extensive utility relocations. The project also included utility maintenance, civic improvements, and safety enhancements to revitalize this historic corridor. VNBRT, prioritizes service frequency and reliability for customers and features nine boarding islands along the red, center-running transit lanes served by Muni’s 49 Van Ness/Mission, 90 San Bruno Owl, and Golden Gate Transit buses. The VNBRT service has stops at Union, Vallejo, Jackson, Sacramento, Sutter, Geary/O'Farrell, Eddy, McAllister, and Market streets.

Key features of the VNBRT include:

• Dedicated bus transit lanes that are physically separated from the other traffic lanes.
• Enhanced traffic signals optimized for north-south travel through the use of Transit Signal Priority.
• Low-floor vehicles and all-door boarding for quicker and easier passenger boarding.
• Safety enhancements for pedestrians that include median refuges, high visibility crosswalks, and audible countdown signals.
• Fully furnished boarding platforms that include shelters, seating, and vehicle arrival displays at key transfer points.
• Reduced travel times for Golden Gate Transit and Muni buses.

The Van Ness Avenue corridor serves as a vital connector of neighborhoods and a regional link for travel between Marin, San Francisco, and San Mateo counties. Van Ness Avenue is one of the busiest north-south streets in the city, serving more than 16,000 Muni customers daily on the 49 Mission/Van Ness and 90 San Bruno Owl bus routes, as well as Golden Gate Transit customers. It is part of the California State Highway System and US Route 101, a primary artery that connects Interstate Highways 280 and 80 with the Golden Gate Bridge. Since the early 1990s, transportation plans prepared by the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Authority (SFMTA) recognized the need to establish rapid transit service on Van Ness Avenue. In 2003, 75 percent of voters approved a sales tax plan to fund rapid transit service on Van Ness Avenue. In October 2016, construction of the VNBRT project began. Revenue service commenced in April 2022

2. Lessons Learned

Significant impacts occur during the development of a transit corridor in a very dense urban corridor, such as Van Ness Avenue. Impacts to stakeholders can include utility interruptions, loss of pedestrian access, temporary vehicular traffic pattern changes or disruptions, and dust/noise from construction activities. As a result, such projects require intensive coordination, collaboration, and communication with project stakeholders, including the public in general. The Project Sponsor must systematically plan well in advance of construction, include adequate budget to perform effective communications, and make the efforts a priority at all levels and in all roles. Public outreach supported the project team to inform the public that bus stops would be consolidated before construction began, allowing transit riders to become familiar with the stop locations during construction and thereafter. The project’s used temporary boarding platforms for the first time ever in San Francisco, and though bus stops were frequently relocated during construction, they were always available for use. In addition, temporary pedestrian-scale lighting was installed to provide night-time lighting and improve safety during construction.

The construction team planned and executed successful total intersection shutdowns that totaled four consecutive days (two weekend days) at each of two complex and heavily travelled intersections. This four-day shutdown allowed the project to complete a significant number of complex construction activities with fewer total community and transit operations impacts than if the work had been sequenced over several weeks. The project team’s coordination with the contractor, transit, and third parties, along with strong public messaging, resulted in benefits for all stakeholders. Examples of successful ways to implement this construction phasing and management “lesson” include:

• Implement effective construction planning efforts to reduce cost, maintain schedule, and minimize impacts to the public and other stakeholders.
• Seek contractor support to develop comprehensive public outreach programs that reduce construction challenges by being proactive in keeping the public informed.
• Institute stakeholder-specific programs and committees to reduce the impact of construction on the community and to ensure positive communication between the city, the contractor, and the impacted neighborhoods.
• Consider the slip-lining method of inserting a plastic liner inside existing sewer pipes (at applicable locations) to reduce the challenges and disruptions of performing subsurface work and managing construction phasing.
• Consider replacing utilities in-place in order to minimize construction cost and duration, especially in historic areas.

Perform sufficient subsurface investigations concurrently during preliminary engineering.  Each dollar spent up-front has the potential to save several dollars during construction.

3. Applicability

This lesson is applicable to transit projects of all sizes.

4. Contact

• David Evans and Associates, Inc., Project Management Oversight Contractor
  Pete Hankovszky – Task Order Manager