Overview
What's Happening at Washington Boulevard?
What's Happening at Paseo Padre Parkway?
Union Pacific Switchover in September 2008
Pictorial Highlights of Key Construction Activities

Overview

The City constructed the grade separations along Paseo Padre Parkway and Washington Boulevard and built the new railroad corridor east of the existing railroad corridor. The grade separation work occurred in several phases to allow continued vehicular and pedestrian traffic and operation of the active Union Pacific Railroad line. When the new railroad track was in place, the railroad traffic was switched to the new corridor. Following the relocation of the railroad, the grade separation work occurred in the areas formerly occupied by the Union Pacific Railroad track.

What’s Happening at Washington Boulevard?

The Washington Boulevard overpass involved construction of an elevated Washington Boulevard roadway consisting of a 250-foot-long bridge over the new Union Pacific railroad track and the future BART extension to Warm Springs. Also, Driscoll Road and Osgood Road had to be raised in order to meet the new elevated Washington Boulevard at the new Washington Boulevard/Driscoll Road/Osgood Road intersection. New embankments were built for the Driscoll and Osgood roadways leading up to the new elevated intersection. The westerly side of the elevated Driscoll Road and Osgood Road are supported by mechanically stabilized earth (MSE) retaining walls to reduce impacts on surrounding properties.

Constructing bridge columns and abutment walls for the Washington Boulevard Overpass

What’s Happening at Paseo Padre Parkway?

At Paseo Padre Parkway, the City constructed an approximately 1,100-foot-long depressed roadway, which has two lanes of traffic in each direction, an 18-foot-wide median, and bicycle lanes and sidewalks on both sides of the parkway. Because of the high water table in the area, constructing a depressed roadway required a unique engineering solution to keep the new underpass dry and minimize water infiltration. The project included construction of soil/cement barrier walls on both sides of the new roadway and a pump station under the roadway to remove collected rainwater or residual seepage from the barrier walls. Water pumped out of the underpass will be discharged into the local drainage system.

In addition to the underpass, three bridges have been constructed over the Paseo Padre Parkway underpass including a bridge for the realigned Union Pacific Railroad, a bridge for the future BART extension to Warm Springs, and a pedestrian/utility bridge, which houses the fiber optic lines formerly located in the railroad corridor crossing Paseo Padre Parkway. The new utility bridge will also act as a critical link for a future pedestrian and bicycle trail between Central Park and the Irvington District.

Installing the pedestrian/utility bridge over the new Paseo Padre Parkway

Union Pacific Switchover in September 2008

Union Pacific, in coordination with the project team, moved its rail operations to the new railroad corridor on September 22, 2008.

The railroad switchover marked a major milestone in the Grade Separation Project. In preparation, the project team and Union Pacific involved in complex coordination to ensure the switchover caused minimal disruption to motorists and the surrounding community. The new corridor includes approximately one and a half miles of new track located several hundred feet east of the existing track in the area between Paseo Padre Parkway and Washington Boulevard. The new track ties into the existing track near Lake Elizabeth to the north and near the equivalent of Haven Street to the south.

New Railroad Crossing Locations

The railroad switchover changed the location of the railroad crossings at both the Paseo Padre Parkway and Washington Boulevard detour roads to approximately 200 feet east of the existing crossings. Once the new crossings were in place and operated satisfactorily for 30 days, the old crossings were removed.

The new railroad crossings for the detour roads were in place until the new Washington Boulevard Overpass and Paseo Padre Parkway Underpass were completed. Once traffic was moved onto the new grade-separated roadways in early and late-2009 at Washington Boulevard and Paseo Padre Parkway respectively, the railroad crossings were no longer be needed and will be removed.

Crews install new Union Pacific Railroad track

View of UP train crossing new utility bridge over Paseo Padre Parkway

Pictorial Highlights of Key Construction Activities

Click here to view pictorial highlights of key construction activities from Spring 2007 through Summer 2008.