By Thomas K. Pendergast

Motorists commuting through the Sunset District will have to deal with fewer lanes on 19th Avenue this year, as the traffic artery gets completely repaved between Lincoln Way and Holloway Avenue.

Replacement of the parking strips on both sides began in December, shutting down one lane in whichever direction where the work was underway for several blocks during the weekdays, while all three of the opposite lanes remained open.

Nineteenth Avenue (California State Highway 1) is one of the busiest traffic corridors in San Francisco. According to California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) database figures updated in 2024, the most recent statistics available, the average daily traffic volume on this stretch of roadway is between 66,000 and 67,000 motor vehicles.

When the parking strip replacements along both sides are completed, the next phase of repaving the six-lane roadway will begin sometime this coming spring, probably in May, according to Caltrans spokesperson Lori Shepherd.

The joint project by Caltrans, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA), the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) and San Francisco Public Works, has a “contract bid amount” of $13.7 million, using both state and federal funds.

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.

Caltrans says the parking strip work began at Sloat Boulevard and then went north to Lincoln Way, then it turned around and went down the southbound lanes back to Sloat.

The hours of construction will mostly be Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.

When the parking strip replacement is done, the project’s last phase will begin with full lane repaving from Holloway Avenue to Lincoln Way this coming May. Repaving the southbound lanes from Sloat to Holloway, the section directly in front of both San Francisco State University and the Stonestown Galleria, is scheduled to begin in June, Caltrans says. The entire project is expected to be finished by December.

During replacement of the parking strips, two traffic lanes are open and one lane closed going in the direction where the work is being done, while all lanes are open in the opposite direction.

During the repaving of the traffic lanes phase, one lane will be open and two will be closed gong in the direction where the work is being done.

If work were being done in both the southbound and northbound directions at the same time, then it would likely mean a traffic bottleneck would occur going both ways, as each direction would have only one lane open.

Caltrans says motorists should expect delays and are encouraged to use alternate routes, especially during peak hours of 6 to 10 a.m. and 3 to 7 p.m.

Caltrans suggests that drivers wanting to avoid 19th Avenue should use Sunset Boulevard as an alternate route. Because the Upper Great Highway south of Lincoln Way is no longer open to motor vehicle traffic, the only other high-volume traffic route available to northbound-southbound traffic from Lincoln Way is Seventh Avenue.

All work will take place during weekdays and some bus routes will need to be temporarily relocated to allow the work to occur.

Paving work near San Francisco State University going from Sloat to Holloway in the southbound direction will be limited to the summer months, Caltrans says.

This is the final stage of the 19th Avenue Transit Effectiveness Project, which started in 2020, beginning with the replacement of sewer pipes plus underground fiber-optic lines, and is now entering the roadway repaving phase along a total of 18.8 “lane miles.”

During the first stage of the project, sewer and water mains were replaced and upgrades were made to the Emergency Firefighting Water System, which in the Sunset runs down much of 19th Avenue.

ADA-compliant curb ramps were installed and bulb-outs were added to shorten the walking distance across the avenue, plus concrete bus pads and traffic signal improvements were added.

The sewer work was done before the water mains because they are on different levels beneath the ground and required two different types of work.

Doing roadwork at night is problematic because of how much the noise would impact the residents living along that avenue.

While repaving the asphalt concurrent with the underground sewer and watermain work was initially considered, the agencies decided against that approach, opting instead to do it later because of cost efficiency and for the uniformity of the finished product.