Doyle Drive Replacement Project

• San Francisco’s primary approach to the Golden Gate Bridge handling 100,000 vehicles a day.
• 1.6-mile-long, six-lane expressway includes 1,800ft of twin-bore cut-and-cover tunnels and 1,800ft of elevated viaducts.
• Geotechnically complex site, within a seismically active region.
• Careful construction planning minimises interference with daily commute traffic.

Doyle Drive Replacement Project – also known also as the Presidio Parkway Project – is a complete replacement of San Francisco’s primary access to the Golden Gate Bridge.

Handling 100,000 vehicles per day, the existing roadway is nearly 75 years old, deteriorating, and not up to current seismic standards. Changes in city traffic flow patterns over the decades have made the existing roadway inefficient at matching traffic loads to and from connecting city streets.

Located within the Presidio of San Francisco (a National Park and a National Historic Landmark District), the project faces several significant challenges: the project team must remove and replace the existing facility, maintain commuter traffic during construction, preserve the natural beauty of a national park and provide extensive public outreach and inter-agency coordination for a large group of stakeholders. Construction began in August 2009.

The new project strives to replace the existing construction with a modern, more aesthetically pleasing roadway. Extensive landscaping and 1,800ft of cut-and-cover tunnels will be used to blend the roadway into its surroundings and restore pedestrian continuity across the area. A viaduct over an excavated area accommodates long-range plans for wetland restoration. Modern interchanges will improve traffic flow while calming traffic at the interface between freeway and streets.

Arup is leading a joint venture with PB Americas, Inc to provide engineering services as part of an integrated team with the California Department of Transportation. Arup will contribute roadway design, drainage design, utility design, structural design (bridges and cut-and-cover tunnels), tunnel systems design, environmental compliance and mitigation, extensive landscaping, site investigations and geotechnical engineering. Arup is also providing transaction advice services on the project.