Artist's rendition of finished Presidio Parkway, main thoroughfare to the Golden Gate Bridge.
Funded in part by more than $120 million in Recovery money from the Department of Transportation, work is underway to complete the long-needed replacement of a key traffic artery connecting the north end of San Francisco with the Golden Gate Bridge. When finished, the new Presidio Parkway will consist of six lanes, a southbound auxiliary lane, a wider landscaped median, and better pedestrian access and will be, according to officials, safer and have greater capacity than Doyle Drive/Route 101, the 77-year-old road being replaced.
Realigning lanes for safer, more efficient travel.Time and nearly 100,000 drivers a day have taken a heavy toll on Doyle Drive, weakening the surface to the point of being vulnerable to seismic damage, which would force the closure of one of the Bay Area's major traffic corridors.
Local authorities have talked about somehow upgrading Doyle Drive since the 1950s, but only within the last 15 years were plans developed and enough funding amassed for the complex project. Because of the project’s location near one of the most iconic bridges in America as well as the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and the historic structures of the Presidio neighborhood, planners had to focus on designing a new roadway that would have minimal impact on the surrounding area’s biological, cultural, and natural resources.
Phase One of construction involved building a temporary bypass, getting traffic off of Doyle Drive and onto a surface that is up to seismic code. Phase Two, now underway, will construct the new parkway. Completion is expected in 2015.
Twelve different funding sources, spanning federal, state, regional and local governments, are financing the $1 billion project. The Recovery funding allowed the project to begin a year earlier than planned.
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