Mansell Corridor Improvement Project

A reminder of the Mansell Corridor Project stakeholder's meeting on Tuesday, Jan 29 at the Crocker Amazon Playground, 799 Moscow St.  If you'd like to attend, please be sure to contact Toni Moran at SF Rec & Park, 415-581-2555.

Additional meetings with the public are planned as followed:  
1)     February 2, 10 am – 12 pm  site walk
2)     February 9 ( 1 –2:30 PM) Public Meeting  and
3)     March 19 (6:30 – 8 PM) 

The current OBAG funding proposal for the Mansell Corridor Improvement Project can be found here. Following further community outreach, supported by funds requested by SFMTA, the OBAG application would be updated by April, 2013.

The following is extracted from pp82-85 of the complete document found at SFCTA's website.

Mansell Corridor Improvements - Scope 

Introduction 

The SFMTA requests a Prop K allocation of $172,724 to fund a portion of the planning phase of the Mansell Corridor Improvements project. The SFMTA applied for OBAG funding for this project in October 2012. It was selected by the SFCTA as one of 10 projects eligible to advance to the second round of the OBAG call for projects. The current request is for project development funding for the planning /conceptual engineering phase to improve the project’s competitiveness for OBAG funds and to improve its project readiness. The SFMTA is requesting a total of $172,724 from the following Prop K categories: $119,112 from Pedestrian Circulation/Safety and $53,612 from Bicycle Circulation/Safety. This requires 5YPP amendments which are described further in the funding section.

Project Background 

Mansell Street is a divided highway running through the middle of McLaren Park, the largest park in southeastern San Francisco. The park serves as both a regional and neighborhood recreation facility for this part of San Francisco. Although the project is not located directly in a San Francisco Priority Development Area (PDA), Mansell Street serves as a major connecting route linking two PDAs, the Bayview /Hunters Point Shipyard/Candlestick Point and the Mission – San Jose Corridor. The location of the park also serves the Community Air Risk Evaluation (CARE) community of Eastern San Francisco and the Outer Mission/Crocker Amazon/Oceanview Community of Concern. The park serves many low income communities adjacent to the park including areas of Visitacion Valley and along Sunnydale Avenue. The Planned Affordable Housing Development as described in the Visitacion Valley/ Schlage Lock Plan will increase the number of residents served by Mansell Street and McLaren Park.

Mansell Street was conceived in the 1950’s as part of a never-completed cross-town freeway. By design, Mansell Street primarily serves only motorized vehicles and the width of the traffic lanes and three different speed limits posted encourage speeding. Although there are several trail systems and a large recreational facility adjacent to Mansell Street, there are no pedestrian, bicycle, or bus stop facilities included within the existing configuration. Pedestrians have to walk on the street or climb over a guard rail and walk along an overgrown informal path to access different park facilities or to commute between neighborhoods. Bicyclists share the road with vehicles travelling at speeds up to 45 MPH and public transit users have to wait on the street for a bus. These non-ideal conditions encourage residents to drive into the park and between park facilities and adjacent neighborhoods rather than walk. Existing facilities do not support multimodal travel, or foster community vitality.

Many of these concerns were brought to the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department’s (SFRPD) attention during its 2010 McLaren Park Needs Assessment workshops. In 2010, SFRPD completed three community workshops to gather information on the greater needs in McLaren Park. More than 300 residents attended those workshops and overwhelmingly voiced their concern for pedestrian and bicycle safety in the park.

During this public process, the community expressed a need for traffic calming and pedestrian safety measures along all the park roads: Mansell Street was identified as the most problematic street. They later described the specific need for sidewalks or paths adjacent to the road, bicycle facilities, bulbouts and crosswalks, and other traffic calming measures. They also mentioned the desire to reduce the number of lanes on Mansell from four to two with a reduction of the speed limits. Currently, the highest speed limit is 45 mph.

Project Scope and Benefits 

The Mansell Corridor Improvements project will address the aforementioned needs. The proposed project will implement a complete streets design that will enable safe access for pedestrians, bicyclists, and public transit users. The project aims to reduce vehicle speeds by reducing the number of vehicle lanes. A traffic study completed by the SFMTA in 2012 indicated that we can also reduce speed limits along Mansell Street. New sidewalks will provide a safe place for transit riders to wait for the bus that is separated from vehicular traffic and we will discuss the possibility of adding bus shelters at the transit stops during the public outreach process. A second design has emerged from community input that would route motor vehicle traffic on Mansell to the southside of the median, which would be striped two-way with two 12’ travel lanes between Visitacion and Brazil. Bicyclists and pedestrians would be routed to separate facilities on the northside of the median. Bike/pedestrian traffic could be routed from Mansell onto Brazil Avenue at the west end of the project. Pedestrians would have the option of taking the existing pathway that runs through the woods on the north side of Mansell to the top of Persia. Auto traffic could take over the full width of Mansell just west of Brazil where it necks down to two lanes currently. The two designs will be vetted with the community during the outreach meetings. In addition to park users, these improvements will benefit residents of the adjacent communities and the region at large. Commuters who currently use Mansell Street to get to work or school will have more safe and efficient mode choices.

The project will improve the quality of life for two PDAs, the Eastern San Francisco CARE, and Southern San Francisco Community of Concern by providing multi-modal options that are safe and convenient. The Mansell Corridor Improvement Project will provide improved connections between adjacent neighborhoods, park trail systems, recreational facilities and the three public schools located immediately adjacent to the Park. The addition of sidewalks and bicycle facilities will activate this portion of the park which historically has gone under-utilized due to access and isolation issues. Additional planned trail improvements adjacent to Mansell (that will be funded by Land and Water Conservation Fund and In-kind Volunteer Labor) are expected to increase pedestrian volumes in the Park once the pedestrian path and crosswalks are in place.

The SFRPD strongly believes in induced demand, “if you build it, they will come.” Similar Capital Improvement Project and bicycle facility projects in the other San Francisco parks have shown that renovation to park facilities results in higher usage and can instill a sense of pride and stewardship in the community.

The proposed facilities on Mansell Street will provide opportunities for increased physical activity by encouraging residents and park users to walk, stroll, skate, or bike. These activities have proven health benefits. Moreover, greater use of lower-carbon modes will reduce emissions that will help to address global warming.

The SFMTA will deliver the following deliverables for this project to the SFCTA by April 2013 (see table below for a list of tasks, deliverables and anticipated schedule):

‐ Complete a conceptual engineering process to identify a preferred alternative
‐ Will present project concept of the preferred alternative to Parks Commission
‐ Evaluate potential phasing and/or value engineer the project to lower the cost, and identify other funding sources (e.g. that help reduce the demand for OBAG funds, which are significantly oversubscribed).
‐ Traffic Study: Task approval for traffic analysis will begin and be partially completed by April 2013 but the final deliverable for this component will be delivered during the environmental phase. 

Mansell Corridor Improvements – Project Development Tasks and Deliverables

Task/Milestone: Deliverable; Schedule

Outreach Strategy: Memo summarizing planned outreach activities, as well as interagency coordination and project management approach; January 2013

Stakeholder OutreachMeeting #1: Memo summarizing the results of outreach to stakeholders, including list of participants and outcomes; January 2013

Community Meeting #1: Memo summarizing the meeting results, including list of participants and outcomes, including analysis of alternatives developed; February 2013

Community Meeting #2: Memo summarizing the meeting results, including list of participants and outcomes, including analysis of preferred alternative; March 2013

Conceptual Design: Memo summarizing the preferred design alternative, conceptual engineering drawings; April 2013

Commission Presentation of Conceptual Proposal Commission presentation, staff report, signed copy of resolution of support for the project; April 2013

Updated OBAG Application: OBAG application updated with new project scope, schedule, budget, and funding plan; April 2013

Implementation

This project is a SFMTA partnership with the SFRPD and SFDPW. Please refer to the Planning /Conceptual Engineering Budget By Task and Agency within the allocation request form for specific task lists for each agency that support the proposed deliverables.