By Thomas K. Pendergast

Commuters who use 19th Avenue as their north-south route may experience some delays this summer. The major thoroughfare is scheduled to be repaved from Lincoln Way to Holloway Avenue starting in August. A construction timeline is not available yet.

The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) Public Information Officer Lori Shepherd confirmed that completion of the sewage and water pipelines replacement and upgrades along the roadway, which is also a segment of California State Route 1, means that repaving can now begin. The project will have two phases.

Phase One is expected to start in August and will focus on parking strip improvements. According to Shepherd, the work will be “carefully coordinated to ensure that only as much area is demolished and re-poured as possible in a single day.”

Phase Two is tentatively scheduled for some time next year, either in the spring or summer, which involves the main paving work for 19th Avenue.

All Muni stops along the route will remain operational throughout the project.

Work times will be limited to Monday-Friday, 7 a.m.-3 p.m.

The total estimated cost of repaving the asphalt on 19th Avenue is $15.8 million. The project is state and federally funded.

Paving work near San Francisco State University going southbound will be limited to the summer months.

Regarding lane management, crews will work on two-to-three block segments at a time, starting at one end of the corridor, progressing to the other, and returning in the opposite direction. Traffic detours will be implemented, and two lanes on 19th Avenue will be closed at a time to facilitate the work while maintaining as much access as possible.

Approximately 200 concrete slabs (about 1,760 cubic yards) will be replaced between Sloat Boulevard and Lincoln Way, including concrete slab replacements at the parking strips along 19th Avenue.

Paving work will also be necessary in the Richmond District where California Street and Park Presidio Boulevard intersect.

About a year ago, there was an “emergency pavement repair” on 19th Avenue in the northbound lanes between Sloat and Taraval Street. Caltrans said this closure was necessary for maintenance crews to perform major pothole and pavement repairs.

For more than two years prior to that, crews worked from Lincoln to Sloat replacing sewer and water main pipelines. Work began on Nov. 30, 2020. They also made upgrades to the Emergency Firefighting Water System.

ADA compliant curb ramps were installed, and 19 pedestrian bulb-outs added to shorten the walking distance across the six-lane avenue and increase the visibility of pedestrians. Plus, concrete bus pads and traffic signal improvements were part of that project. Sidewalks were widened at bus stops, according the San Francisco Department of Public Works (SFDPW). That project also included transit bulbs at 12 intersections along the roadway.

Some transit stops were either relocated or removed in an effort to reduce travel time and increase reliability.

All these changes came out of the 19th Avenue Transit Effectiveness Project and is a joint venture between the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA), the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC), Caltrans and SFDPW.

The stated project goals are to improve transit priority and pedestrian safety along this busy traffic corridor. The 28-19th Avenue and 28R buses carry 20,000 customers each day, making the corridor one of Muni’s busiest.

Because of the obvious impacts on traffic the repaving will have, plus the recent closure of the Upper Great Highway to traffic, the SFDPW recommends using other alternate routes, depending on the driver’s destination. The possible alternative north-south routes DPW recommends include Sunset Boulevard to the west of 19th Avenue, or to the east via Franklin, Gough and Divisadero streets, or Van Ness Avenue.

To cross the park, Chain-of-Lakes Drive is another option; it connects 41st Avenue at Lincoln Way with 43rd Avenue and Fulton Street.