By Christin Evans, HANC Board
At HANC's September meeting, representatives from DPW and SFMTA were on hand to answer questions about the two-year-long construction project planned along Haight street. Work may begin as soon as January 2018, but with the project not yet out to bid the start time may be delayed by a month or two.
All pavement between the buildings (sidewalks and roadway) along Haight from Stanyan to Central will be removed and replaced. New features added will include pedestrian bulb-outs at intersections to shorten the crosswalk, traffic lights at intersections which currently have stop signs, and new conduit for community wi-fi, and pedestrian scale lights. A number of trees are planned for removal either because they aren't thriving or because they currently interfere with bus wires.
Meeting attendees asked for some additional details which HANC posed to DPW's Manager of Public Affairs Alex Murillo. His answers follow:
1) At the meeting you described the process by which the buses will send a signal to hold or change the traffic light to speed the buses down the street. What type of equipment will be used by the buses to change the traffic lights? Is it a large antenna or box?
Please see accompanying picture for reference. The equipment will be mounted on a pole with traffic signal equipment: square pad next to signal for wireless communication between signals and a little white pod receiver (just below letter “B” on banner/see attached). The square pad measures about 11 inches x 11 inches.
2) What type of concrete will be put into the sidewalks? Does the sparkle go all the way through or is it only superficial?
It’s the same process used throughout the city. The sparkle will be placed on top and embedded into the concrete. It will not be mixed-in with the entire concrete mix. The contractor will pour the sidewalk and during the finishing process they’ll add the sparkle. The contractor will use floats/trowels to embed the sparkles into the cement. The sidewalk will be left with a thinly covered cement paste for 1-2 days. The contractor will then return to wash and scrub (hard bristle push broom) the sidewalks in order to expose the sparkle.
3) What types of trees and plants will be put in?
The trees being planted are Brisbane Box trees. This tree was chosen because of the following reasons:
-moderate to fast growing (trunk & branches won’t get snapped and easily vandalized)
-low water needs
-drought- tolerant
-can handle poor drainage
-can tolerate any kind of soil
-a low maintenance street tree well adapted to urban conditions, incredibly resilient
-disease and pest resistant
-can tolerate sun or shade (works on both sides of the street)
-evergreen
-narrow canopy (to avoid canopy clipping by the many loading areas, trucks, buses, etc. & minimal canopy size)
-flowers provide habitat value
-readily available at local nursery suppliers
-a very popular and robust street tree seen throughout SF (on approved SF street tree list)
4) How many trees are being removed/replaced?
We’re removing 37 trees and adding 44. The net gain will be 7 trees. (Editor's note: at the meeting, a list of the impacted trees was requested. We will provide the list of trees on this website once we have it.)