New Paseo Padre Parkway underpass

The Grade Separation Project involved building an overpass on Washington Boulevard between Bruce Drive and Roberts Avenue and an underpass on Paseo Padre Parkway between Shadowbrooke Common Road and Hancock Drive to separate car and pedestrian traffic from railroad crossings. The project also included relocating about one and a half miles of an active Union Pacific railroad track up to 500 feet to the east in the area between Paseo Padre Parkway and Washington Boulevard.

The Grade Separation Project is the largest public works project undertaken by the City of Fremont. Extensive effort went into arranging for project funding, negotiating with Union Pacific Railroad on alignment issues, acquiring right of way, conducting technical and environmental studies, engaging in a public input process, and coordinating with BART, numerous utility companies and other agencies.

New Washington Boulevard Overpass

Project Benefits

The Grade Separation Project helps improve safety and traffic delays and eliminates the need for trains to sound their horns when approaching and crossing Washington Boulevard and Paseo Padre Parkway.

In turn, eliminating traffic backups at train crossings helps reduce cut-through traffic on neighborhood streets and improve safety in the area by separating vehicles from the railroad tracks.

In addition, the project facilitates extension of BART from the Downtown Fremont Station to a new station in Warm Springs to proceed in a grade-separated corridor within the BART right of way. BART will travel over Paseo Padre Parkway on a bridge structure and continue at grade, passing under the grade-separated Washington Avenue. Click here to see a project map that shows the BART alignment.

An optional, potential future Irvington station (pending availability of funding), would be located just south of Washington Boulevard near Osgood Road, approximately midway between the Downtown Fremont and Warm Springs stations.

Read more on the BART Warm Spring Extension.

Finding Solutions to Project Challenges

Over the last 13 years, the project team faced many challenges involving funding, right-of-way acquisitions, utility relocations, environmental concerns, and engineering complications. However, through complex coordination and resourcefulness, they kept the project moving forward and finished construction under budget and approximately 10 months ahead of schedule, including weather delays. What were the challenges they faced? Read below for some highlights.

Funding Challenges & Right-of-Way Acquisitions

• After a community vote against the initial overhead design at Paseo Padre Parkway, engineers devised an underpass concept – a more expensive solution. The engineering complexities of building an underpass in an area with a high water table meant that the team had to find significantly more funding in a tough economic climate. Through complex negotiations with multiple agencies, the team was able to secure additional funds, minimize right-of-way acquisition costs, and find partners to share portions of the utility relocation costs. In addition, construction of the BART bridge as part of the Grade Separation Project will minimize future disruption to the community and save taxpayer dollars. Furthermore, the team eliminated elements of the project that had inflated the initial bids.
• To solve the challenge of price escalation during two and a half years of negotiations on agreements with Union Pacific (UP), BART, Santa Clara Valley Transportation Agency (VTA), utility companies, and property owners, the team broke the project into several smaller contracts so work could move forward in areas not affected by the agreements. This helped the project stay within budget and on schedule.

Utility Relocations

Installation of drain pipe across Washington Boulevard

• The project required extensive coordination with 16 utility companies including 11 cable companies to relocate fiber optic cables, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission to install new railroad bridges over Hetch Hetchy waterlines, Alameda County Water District to relocate several waterlines, Alameda County Flood Control District to relocate several storm drain channels, Union Sanitary District to relocate sanitary sewer lines, and Kinder Morgan Pipelines to relocate a major fuel transmission line.

Environmental Challenges

• The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed the California tiger salamander as a "threatened species" just before the start of construction. Although this delayed the start of work while a mitigation plan was created, the team was able to make up the lost time through careful project management.

Engineering Challenges

Train approaching new rail road bridge over Paseo Padre Parkway

• To address seismic safety along the Hayward fault line in the project area, special retaining walls (mechanically stabilized earth, MSE, walls) were constructed for the elevated Osgood and Driscoll roadways to ensure the walls move with the natural creep of the earth caused by the fault line.
• To minimize traffic delays at Washington Boulevard, construction activities were carefully phased into 12 stages. Also, two major detour roads were temporarily constructed for Paseo Padre Parkway and Washington Boulevard to keep traffic moving during construction.
• Due to the high water table in the area around Paseo Padre Parkway, the team used soil/cement barrier walls and an underground pump well system to keep the depressed portion of the roadway dry and passable during construction and winter storms.
• The team managed complex coordination with UP to relocate 1.5 miles of active railroad tracks up to 500 feet east of their original location in order to align the tracks with the new underpass and overpass.
• The project included construction of three bridges over the Paseo Padre Parkway underpass, including a UP railroad bridge, a bridge for BART, and a utility bridge. The top of the utility bridge was paved with concrete so that it can be used as part of a future pedestrian/bike trail that will connect the future Irvington BART Station with Central Park.