Sloat Blvd Quick-Build Project
The Sloat Quick-Build Project aims to improve safety for all users and enhance active-transportation options on Sloat Boulevard between Skyline Boulevard and 47th Avenue, connecting Lake Merced, the San Francisco Zoo, and Ocean Beach. The SFMTA will implement the project in mid-to-late 2024, ahead of the planned closure (to vehicle traffic) of the Great Highway south of Sloat Boulevard, to protect stormwater infrastructure from ongoing coastline erosion.
The project will upgrade pedestrian crossings, add a two-way protected bikeway, install transit boarding islands, improve accessibility, and consider other measures to reduce vehicle speeds while keeping traffic moving. It will not reduce the number of vehicle travel lanes on Sloat Boulevard. The project supports implementing goals and priorities identified in the Ocean Beach Master Plan, SFMTA's Vision Zero Program, and District 4 Westside Study. It is part of a suite of changes ahead of the planned Great Highway Extension closure. It is coordinated with several adjacent projects, including traffic-signal upgrades at Sloat Blvd & Skyline Blvd (by SFMTA), Sloat Blvd & Great Highway (by SFMTA), and Skyline Blvd & Great Highway (by Caltrans), and SFPUC's Westside Pump Station Project.
What is a quick-build project?
Quick-build projects focus on implementing safety improvements on streets identified on San Francisco's Vision Zero High-Injury Network.
Quick-build projects are adjustable and reversible traffic safety improvements that SFMTA crews can install quickly. Unlike major capital projects that may take years to plan, design, bid, and construct, quick-build projects are buildable within weeks and months and are intended to be evaluated and reviewed within 24 months of implementation.
Typical quick-build type improvements include:
- Paint, traffic delineators, and street signs
- Parking and loading (curb management) adjustments
- Traffic signal timing changes and small modifications
Background & scope
The Great Highway south of Sloat Boulevard will be closed to all vehicle traffic in the coming years as part of efforts to harden stormwater infrastructure and limit erosion along the coastline. The Sloat Quick-Build Project's principal goal is to improve safety for active modes of transportation in anticipation of additional traffic traveling on Sloat Boulevard. Project staff will develop intersection pedestrian safety changes and a design for a two-way protected bikeway along the corridor.
In addition to safety upgrades, the project intends to better connect recreational and institutional spaces in the area for people on foot and bikes, including Lake Merced, the San Francisco Zoo, and Ocean Beach. The Lake Merced Quick-Build Project is underway with proposals to establish new and add physical protection for existing on-street bicycle facilities, thereby relieving pressure on the shared-use path which rings the lake. The temporary COVID-era "Great Walkway" has expanded space for active mobility along the shoreline. The Sloat Quick-Build aims to connect these recreational destinations and make active transportation safer in southwest San Francisco.
Further, the project is coordinated with traffic-signal upgrades at either end of the project. Work at Sloat Blvd & Skyline Blvd is informed by the Sloat & Skyline Intersection Alternatives Study, and signal changes at Sloat Blvd & Great Highway are tied to post-pandemic planning for the Great Highway. The quick-build improvements with this project may provide interim connections with these intersections while the signal work is designed and constructed, with more robust integration informed by evaluation added later.
Importantly, Sloat Boulevard between Skyline Boulevard and 45th Avenue (approximately 2/3rds of the project area) is on the Vision Zero High-Injury Network – the 13% of San Francisco's streets on which 75% of severe and fatal traffic-injury collisions occur. Addressing safety issues on these streets is the focus of the SFMTA. In June 2019, the SFMTA Board of Directors passed a resolution that enables the SFMTA to deliver quick-build projects more efficiently to achieve its Vision Zero goals.
Goals & objectives
- Improve safety for people walking and bicycling by upgrading street infrastructure to best-practice designs
- Update pedestrian crossings
- Add a physically-protected bikeway
- Reduce vehicle speeds while keeping traffic moving, thereby reducing the likelihood of severe-injury collisions for people driving and people walking
- Optimized curb management
- Improve reliability for the 18 46th Avenue and 23 Monterey bus routes by installing level, in-lane bus boarding island and removing the existing eastbound and westbound stops at 43rd Avenue.
- Reduce the number of conflicts between those who walk, bike, and drive on the corridor
- Manage additional traffic diverted from the to-be-closed Great Highway Extension to and from Skyline Boulevard
- Improve connections between recreational destinations, the San Francisco Zoo, and public transit
