In the Works - Community Newsletter May 2020 Newsletter | Page 11

Over the Memorial Day holiday
weekend, demolition crews
removed the bridge over Geary
Boulevard – slab by slab – in
a methodical operation that
involved cranes, excavators, blow
torches, crowbars and engineering
know-how.
Taking down the first of three
slabs, which weighed in at 70,000
pounds, brought a little drama
to the scene, when it wouldn’t
budge right away from where it
had been nestled for nearly six
decades. The crews first tried
pulling it from the top, then
pushing it from the bottom, until
finally it came loose, and the
crane could swing it safely away
to the flatbed truck nearby.
The engineers who were on hand
watched each move with a mix of
excitement, curiosity, nervousness,
and, finally, relief. It’s not every
day a bridge is demolished in San
Francisco.
In all, crews took down 165 feet
of bridge span and 222 feet of
ramp.
Several Public Works teams were
involved in the bridge-removal
project: Project Management,
Construction Management,
Structural Engineering, Electrical
Engineering, Regulatory Affairs,
Site Assessment and Remediation
and Public Affairs. We also served
as project engineer.
The project is part of the
San Francisco Municipal
Transportation Agency’s larger
Geary Rapid Project, which
aims to improve bus service and
pedestrian safety on the Geary
corridor between Stanyan and
Market streets.
The existing street-level crossing
at the Geary-Steiner intersection
will be upgraded to improve
pedestrian safety with highvisibility
crosswalks, mid-crossing
islands, bulb-outs to shorten the
crossing distance and retimed
traffic signals.
The pedestrian advocacy group
Walk San Francisco came out in
support of removing the bridge.
“So why is Walk SF cheering on
the demolition of a pedestrianonly
space?” the organization
wrote in a blog post. “Well, in
addition to this particular bridge
failing ADA standards, pedestrian
bridges typically don’t make
streets safer. They keep streets
fast and dangerous and give the
message that streets are (for) cars
first, people last.”
One of the last views
of the bridge walkway
prior to the demolition.