Octavia Boulevard
Encyclopedia
Octavia Boulevard is a major street in San Francisco
, California
that replaced the Hayes Valley portion of the damaged two-level Central Freeway
. Once a portion of Octavia Street alongside shadowy, fenced-off land beneath the elevated U.S. Route 101 roadway, Octavia Boulevard was redeveloped and redesigned to better use the freeway's right-of-way for additional street space and new housing.
The boulevard is merely four blocks long from Market to Fell Street, containing multiple lanes that separate local and through traffic. On Octavia, homes and businesses located immediately on the street are served by the quieter outer roadways, while lanes leading to and from the rebuilt Central Freeway spur connect faster traffic with the inner roadways. Having replaced a freeway, the boulevard distributes traffic smoothly and evenly throughout the immediate neighborhood, while maintaining the links to the major San Francisco traffic arterials that the old elevated freeway used to connect to directly, including Fell and Oak Streets (which serve the city's western neighborhoods) and Franklin and Gough Streets (which serve northern neighborhoods and the Golden Gate Bridge. A brand new park named Hayes Green was created as part of the boulevard project. It lies on Octavia between Fell and Hayes Street.
North of Hayes Street, Octavia continues as Octavia Street through the Western Addition
, Pacific Heights
and Marina
neighborhoods to Bay Street, at Fort Mason
.
Other freeway removal
projects in the San Francisco Bay
, due to seismic stability (or collapse), include the replacement of San Francisco's Embarcadero Freeway
, and the reuse of the collapsed Cypress Structure
's right-of-way in neighboring Oakland.
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
that replaced the Hayes Valley portion of the damaged two-level Central Freeway
Central Freeway
The Central Freeway is a roughly one-mile elevated freeway in San Francisco, California, United States, connecting the Bayshore/James Lick Freeway with the Hayes Valley neighborhood. Most of the freeway is part of US 101, which exits at Mission Street on the way to the Golden Gate Bridge...
. Once a portion of Octavia Street alongside shadowy, fenced-off land beneath the elevated U.S. Route 101 roadway, Octavia Boulevard was redeveloped and redesigned to better use the freeway's right-of-way for additional street space and new housing.
The boulevard is merely four blocks long from Market to Fell Street, containing multiple lanes that separate local and through traffic. On Octavia, homes and businesses located immediately on the street are served by the quieter outer roadways, while lanes leading to and from the rebuilt Central Freeway spur connect faster traffic with the inner roadways. Having replaced a freeway, the boulevard distributes traffic smoothly and evenly throughout the immediate neighborhood, while maintaining the links to the major San Francisco traffic arterials that the old elevated freeway used to connect to directly, including Fell and Oak Streets (which serve the city's western neighborhoods) and Franklin and Gough Streets (which serve northern neighborhoods and the Golden Gate Bridge. A brand new park named Hayes Green was created as part of the boulevard project. It lies on Octavia between Fell and Hayes Street.
North of Hayes Street, Octavia continues as Octavia Street through the Western Addition
Western Addition, San Francisco, California
The Western Addition is a neighborhood in San Francisco, California, United States.-Location:The Western Addition is sandwiched between Van Ness Avenue, Golden Gate Park, the Upper and Lower Haight neighborhoods, and Pacific Heights....
, Pacific Heights
Pacific Heights, San Francisco, California
Pacific Heights is a neighborhood of San Francisco, California.-Location:Pacific Heights is located in one of the most scenic and park-like settings in Northern California, offering panoramic views of the Golden Gate Bridge, the San Francisco Bay, Alcatraz and the Presidio...
and Marina
Marina District, San Francisco, California
The Marina District is a neighborhood located in San Francisco, California. The neighborhood sits on the site of the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition, staged after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake to celebrate the reemergence of the city...
neighborhoods to Bay Street, at Fort Mason
Fort Mason
Fort Mason, once known as San Francisco Port of Embarkation, US Army, in San Francisco, California, is a former United States Army post located in the northern Marina District, alongside San Francisco Bay. Fort Mason served as an Army post for more than 100 years, initially as a coastal defense...
.
Other freeway removal
Freeway removal
Freeway removal is a public policy of urban planning designed to create mixed-use urban areas with a concentration of residential, commercial, and other land uses. Also known as activity centres, cities have begun removing existing or incomplete infrastructure to create parks, waterfronts, and...
projects in the San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary through which water draining from approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean...
, due to seismic stability (or collapse), include the replacement of San Francisco's Embarcadero Freeway
California State Route 480
State Route 480 was a state highway in San Francisco, California, United States, consisting of the elevated double-decker Embarcadero Freeway , the partly elevated Doyle Drive approach to the Golden Gate Bridge and the proposed and unbuilt section in between. The unbuilt section from Doyle Drive to...
, and the reuse of the collapsed Cypress Structure
Cypress Street Viaduct
The Cypress Street Viaduct, often referred to as the Cypress Structure, was a 1.6 mile long, raised two-tier, multi-lane freeway constructed of reinforced concrete that was originally part of the Nimitz Freeway in Oakland, California.It replaced an earlier single-deck viaduct constructed in the...
's right-of-way in neighboring Oakland.
External links
- SFCityscape.com: Octavia Boulevard
- "Where the Highway Ends," Metropolis Magazine, June 13, 2005
- Market & Octavia Neighborhood Plan City & County of San Francisco.
- Congress for the New Urbanism History of Octavia Boulevard