Track repair project near Daly City wraps up weeks ahead of schedule

Excellent news for weekend BART passengers—the trackway construction and repair project between Daly City and Balboa Park stations has been completed weeks ahead of schedule.  Customers will no longer need to use a bus bridge to get between Glen Park and Daly City, as direct regular weekend service to SFO and beyond has been restored.

The project was initially slated to cover seven weekends of intense repair work—but thanks to maintenance crews’ extraordinary efforts, only five were needed.

Weekend shutdowns are designed to give our workers a concentrated period of time to work on a specific problem area, work they would be unable to complete in the regular overnight maintenance window between 1 am and 4 am. Had crews not been able to work for the entire weekend, the repairs would have taken over four months – and some of the work would not have been possible. Miles of worn rail needed replacement near Balboa Park, as well as the reconstruction of a track structure called a crossover.

Crossovers allow trains to move from one side of the trackway to the other—and this particular crossover is having the finishing touches put on during regular maintenance hours. It will likely go into regular service in early October.

Additionally, sound dampers were installed through this area which will help quiet the screeching rails.  The noise had become a problem for not only passengers, but also people living in the nearby neighborhoods—and nobody likes having a noisy neighbor.  The dampers reduce vibration from the trains running overhead; now that they’ve been installed, BART will be easier on everyone’s ears.

All told, crews replaced over 4,000 feet of rail and 930 old wooden ties, installed 2,800 dampers, reconfigured power systems through the area, rebuilt a local portion of the train control system, laid 1,600 feet of cable, and removed five dead or dying trees which threatened to obstruct the right-of-way.

Much of BART’s infrastructure such as rails, power transmission cabling, substations, tunnels, and track circuitry has deteriorated to the point of needing replacement.  The Balboa Park weekend shutdowns were part of our effort to repair and replace the critical parts of BART that keep you moving, which will continue in earnest during 2017 ($71.5 million budgeted for core system reinvestment).

BART has additionally placed a bond measure (Measure RR) on this November’s presidential ballot which, if voters approve, would be dedicated to helping pay for the cost of capital improvements such as rail replacement.  Learn more by visiting bart.gov/betterbart, and see our plan for the future.