Grand Avenue Complete Streets Paving Project

• Project TypeTransportation
• Start Date2024
• Project StatusDetailed Design

Summer 2026 Design Update

OakDOT is pleased to share draft detailed designs (“65% designs”) for this project, which spans Grand Ave from Broadway in Uptown to Mandana Blvd in the Grand Lake District. These designs build off more than two years of planning and design work.

The project will:

• Slow traffic and make pedestrian safety improvements along a stretch of Oakland’s High-Injury Network.
• Connect Uptown, Adams Point, and Grand Lake with low-stress bikeways.
• Enhance bus stops with bus boarding islands and new shelters and benches.
• Improve loading and business access with new commercial loading zones.
• Add new accessible parking spaces.
• Repave the roadway.

For questions or comments, contact Charlie Ream (cream@oaklandca.gov)

Grand Lake District Changes

OakDOT has updated the roadway design for the Grand Lake District (Santa Clara Avenue / Lake Park Avenue to Mandana Boulevard) to add a separated bikeway while maintaining front-in angled parking. This design is made possible by the addition of a center two-way turn lane throughout this segment and by lessons learned from the success of a similar design on 10^th Street in Chinatown.

The revised design balances safety and comfort for active users with maintaining on-street parking. The bikeway will be separated from vehicle traffic by parked cars and concrete wheel stops and will create a consistent separated bikeway from Uptown through Grand Lake. New commercial loading zones will provide curb access for delivery and ride-share drivers without double-parking and the two-way center turn lane will allow flexibility for drivers. On-street parking will keep its familiar front-in angled format and parking loss will be minimal.

Parklets

OakDOT has developed designs for parklets in the Adams Point District that keep the parklet against the curb while “bending out” the bikeway around the parklet. This makes it so there are no conflicts between parklet users and people biking.

In the Grand Lake District, OakDOT will work with parklet owners who are interested in applying for updated Parklet Permits to update the design of their parklets to meet current standards and balance reducing conflicts with preserving on-street parking.

Next Steps

The scope of this project is now entering the detailed design phase, with an established layout for travel lanes, bikeways, and other major improvements. OakDOT will work with stakeholders and partner organizations to identify tweaks to design details, such as the locations of loading zones, the dimensions of specific improvements, and detailed design of parklets.

Construction is anticipated to begin in Summer 2027. Paving and construction of safety improvements will occur in stages. Construction staging and exact timing is TBD. The project team will notify businesses, residents, and other stakeholders of project impacts following completion of final designs and contractor scope of work.

About

Fulfilling Oakland’s commitment to voters who ratified Measure U in 2022, this Paving Coordination project is working to quickly improve roadway safety with our bond dollars. Paving projects can make major changes to improve safety like restriping the roadway to realign lanes and installing concrete elements including bikeway separation islands, pedestrian safety islands, and bus boarding islands. It is not feasible for paving projects to perform traffic signal modifications, change drainage infrastructure, or make other major alterations that require complex civil engineering design (for instance widening sidewalks or altering the grade of the roadway). By following these guidelines, OakDOT is seeking to reduce the project delivery timeline to 2-3 years for major streetscape improvements, compared to 8 to 15 years for a typical major capital project.

Previous Project Updates

September 2025:

OakDOT received Final Concept Design ("35% Design Plans") plans for the Grand Avenue Project!  This is an important design milestone as it is the last chance to make geometric changes to the plans before the project moves into Detailed Design.  OakDOT will be showcasing these plans to the Grand Avenue community throughout the Fall of 2025 to answer questions about the proposed designs and take targeted feedback on specific design elements.  

The 35% plans for this project include the following elements which will improve safety and access for all roadway users through the heart of some of Oakland’s most active commercial and residential corridors:

• 2.2 lane-miles of fully physically separated curbside bike lanes, separated from moving traffic by concrete islands, concrete wheel stops, and parked cars
• Two segments of two-way bike path (Bay Place to Bellevue Ave West, and Bellevue Ave East to El Embarcadero) which, in coordination with other OakDOT projects, move forward the vision of a complete two-way bike path around Lake Merritt
• 13 new pedestrian refuge islands to facilitate safe pedestrian crossings to bus stops, Lakeside Park, residential neighborhoods, and commercial destinations
• 10 new bus boarding islands with new bus canopies and benches to provide safe, accessible spaces for transit patrons and to improve bus reliability and speeds
• Other traffic-calming and roadway safety improvements including lane reductions, lane narrowing, sightline improvements, loading zones to decrease double-parking, and more – all targeted at slowing traffic and creating calm streets around Lake Merritt and commercial corridors
• Redesigned intersections, including extensive pedestrian safety improvements at the intersection of Grand Ave/Santa Clara/Lake Park which will reduce the size of that central Grand Lake intersection and improve safety for people connecting to the Grand Lake District
• Improved ADA-accessible curb ramps at all intersections along the project (17 intersections, approximately 68 improved curb ramps). 

Please note that these plans are still subject to change based on comments from internal and external stakeholders.  

July 2025:

OakDOT is engaged in design work for the Grand Avenue corridor from Broadway to Mandana Blvd.  This project will remove one lane of westbound vehicle travel on Grand Avenue between El Embarcadero and Bay Place.  This project will install physically-separated bike lanes on Grand Avenue between Webster Street and Santa Clara Avenue/Lake Park Avenue - 2.2 one-way lane miles of new fully separated bike lanes connected East Oakland and Downtown!  This project will also install pedestrian refuge islands, bus boarding islands, and other roadway features to calm vehicle traffic and provide safer crossings for pedestrians. 

2025 Outreach and Activities:

• March 20:  City of Oakland Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Commission Presentation
• April 2, 2025:  Presentation to the Grand Avenue Business Association
• April 26, 2025:  Grand Lake Farmer's Market tabling event
• May 12, 2025:  Presentation to Adams Point Neighbors
• May 21, 2025:  Presentation to Grand Lake Neighbors
• June 4, 2025:  Presentation to Grand Avenue Business Assoc.
• July 16, 2025:  35% Plans Presentation to Grand Lake Neighbors
• September 8, 2025:  Presentation to Adams Point Neighbors
• September 17, 2025:  Presentation to Grand Lake Neighbors

November 2024:

OakDOT has entered into a contract with Wood Rodgers, Inc, an engineering design consultant who will be taking the design of the Grand Avenue Complete Streets Paving Project through to 100% design and construction. OakDOT is very excited to restart public engagement and design on this project, building off the previous work done from 2022 through early 2024. The first phase of work will be traffic data collection and a road diet analysis to study the potential of reducing vehicle travel lanes on Grand Avenue to accommodate safety improvements for all roadway users. OakDOT will conduct a public outreach process in early 2025 to work with the community to come to a final decision related to the future roadway configuration of the three main segments of the Grand Avenue Project: Uptown (Broadway to Harrison), Adams Point (Bay Place to MacArthur), and the Grand Lake Business District (Santa Clara to Mandana).

Project Background

Grand Avenue from Broadway to MacArthur is set to be repaved by the City of Oakland's Measure U-funded paving program.

Grand Avenue in this neighborhood also acts as a bypass or cut-through route for drivers avoiding traffic on I580, and is on the City's Bicycle and Pedestrian High Injury Network—the 6% of City streets that account for over 60% of severe and fatal collisions. How can OakDOT leverage this paving project to improve safety and access for people walking, biking, and taking the bus?  Project improvements could include:

• Pedestrian crossing improvements (pedestrian refuge islands, new crosswalks, etc.)
• Transit improvements to improve reliability of the bus, building off the recommendations of AC Transit's Grand Ave Rapid Corridors Project
• Protected bike lane treatments to separate people biking from motor vehicle traffic
• Traffic calming to slow vehicle traffic
• Curb management to address loading and operational needs
• Roadway re-striping to reconfigure travel and/or turning lanes