Home Contra Costa County BART Set for Labor Day Weekend Track Shutdown, Highway 24 Lane Closures

BART Set for Labor Day Weekend Track Shutdown, Highway 24 Lane Closures

by ECT

The second of six scheduled weekend track shutdowns between the Orinda and Walnut Creek stations will happen this Labor Day weekend (August 31-September 2) to allow for major track replacement work funded by voter-approved Measure RR on BART’s busiest line.

Free buses provided by County Connection and AC Transit will replace trains between the Orinda, Lafayette, and Walnut Creek stations while work crews replace nearly 50-year-old track components that have outlived their useful lives.

BART riders can expect delays of 40 minutes or more during the Labor Day weekend between Orinda and Walnut Creek.

Lane closures on eastbound Highway 24

The two left lanes on eastbound Highway 24 near the Lafayette Station and Oak Hill Road will be closed while the Labor Day weekend track work takes place.  The lanes will be closed starting at 11 pm Friday, 8/30 with both lanes scheduled to be reopened by 7 am on Tuesday, 9/3.

BART and Caltrans are partnering to limit impacts for drivers because of this critical system rebuilding work.  Daytime peak delays for eastbound drivers are likely to happen in the afternoon hours and could reach up to 30 minutes.  If delays approach 30 minutes Caltrans will notify BART and the number of lanes closed will be reduced from two to one.  That happened during the first track shutdown weekend when one lane was reopened on Saturday, 8/17 for more than five hours.  BART also voluntarily reopened one lane on Sunday, 8/18 for more than 8 hours even though backups did not approach 30 minutes.

BART explored multiple alternatives but determined that closing two lanes of the highway was the only safe way to position a 265-ton crane to perform the heavy lifting tasks required for this critical rebuilding work.  The space will also be used for other heavy equipment and construction materials.

The importance of working over the Labor Day weekend

The three-day work window provided by the Labor Day holiday offers a huge production gain for the construction team.  Whenever BART does track replacement work it takes a combined 14 hours to decommission a section of track and later recertify that the replacement track is ready for service.  This fixed amount of time is a key factor in planning for any track project.  During a typical weekend shutdown that allows a window of approximately 36 hours for productive construction work.  But during a three-day period that window is extended up to 60 hours.  That represents a nearly 67% increase in time for productive construction.

The Labor Day weekend is traditionally a low-ridership period for BART.  Once the scheduled work for the Labor Day weekend is complete, regular BART service between Orinda and Walnut Creek will resume for the Tuesday morning commute.

Shutdown weekends

Track shutdowns between the Orinda and Walnut Creek stations are scheduled to happen on the following weekends: 8/31-9/2 (Labor Day weekend), 9/14-15, 9/28-29, 10/12-13, and 10/26-27.  Every track shutdown weekend will include free bus service provided by County Connection and AC Transit between the Orinda, Lafayette, and Walnut Creek stations. The first track shutdown for this rebuilding project happened on the weekend of 8/17-18.

Single tracking on additional Saturdays

BART is reducing service on several non-shutdown Saturdays through October to make way for more track work to occur between the Orinda and Walnut Creek stations by running trains on only a single track. This is part of the effort to limit impacts on the public by scheduling as much work as possible during overnight hours and single-tracking periods.

Single tracking is scheduled to take place on the following Saturdays: 9/7, 9/21, and 10/19.

Riders can expect delays of up to 30 minutes between Orinda and Walnut Creek on those Saturdays.  Additionally, the two left eastbound lanes of Highway 24 in Lafayette near Oak Hill Road will be closed from 11 pm Fridays to 7 am Saturdays as well as from 11 pm Saturdays to 9 am Sundays.  There will be no daytime lane closures on Highway 24 for single tracking.

Work to improve the rider experience

BART crews are making the most of their time by working around the clock during shutdown weekends.  Here are some of the highlights of what they’ll accomplish during this non-stop work:

*Replace 5,000 linear feet of rail.

*Replace six track switches.  Switches are to a railroad what intersections are to cars.  They are large track components that help redirect trains from line to line.

*Install 320 new electrical insulators to support and keep electricity confined to the third rail.

*Replace nearly 10,000 feet of train control cable.

*Remove and replace 2.8 million pounds of rock ballast, which is used to support the trackway.

Once the work is complete the noise level of trains will drop, and passengers will experience a smoother, safer, and more reliable ride.  The Antioch-to-Millbrae line that extends through Contra Costa County into San Francisco is the busiest in the BART system.  These track improvements will benefit tens of thousands of riders every day for decades to come.

Media can access video from the first track shutdown weekend (8/17-18) here.

RR at work

BART District voters prioritized rebuilding BART when they approved Measure RR in 2016.  The measure provides $3.5 billion in bonds to replace outdated infrastructure across the BART system.

RR-funded projects like this one are having a real impact on the daily riding experience.  BART has already successfully completed track rebuilding projects between the Pleasant Hill/Contra Costa Centre and Concord stations as well as between the West Oakland and 12th Street/Oakland City Center stations.  Replacing aging track equipment that in some cases dates back to the beginning of service in 1972 is one reason BART’s on-time reliability rate has reached 92%.

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