Congratulations Caltrans, SFCTA, and GLC — the Presidio Parkway is 10 years strong

Project partners and key collaborators, including the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), the San Francisco County Transportation Authority (SFCTA), the Presidio Trust and Golden Link Concessionaire (GLC), as well as notable elected officials gathered at the Tunnel Tops Park to commemorate this significant milestone on July 11. The ceremony, initiated by GLC, was a testament to the role the parkway has played for San Francisco and the broader Bay Area.

A section of US 101, the Presidio Parkway serves as San Francisco’s gateway to the Golden Gate Bridge. The project replaced the aging Doyle Drive, which was deteriorating, seismically unsafe, and unable to safely serve its tens of thousands of daily users. The project’s unique design works with the surrounding landscape, opening up views, reconnecting the Presidio to the waterfront and creating 50 acres of new parkland, and preserving the historic buildings and veteran’s cemetery of the former US Army’s West Coast headquarters.

Since opening in 2015, Presidio Parkway has fostered a more interconnected Bay Area and has helped the Presidio Trust to enhance development of this unique urban National Park. A vital neighborhood amenity, the revitalized Presidio has brought new business and residents to San Francisco. The parkway also promotes mobility and sustainability within the region as the first Greenroads-certified highway in the United States.

Working with a diverse group of public and private stakeholders, Arup and WSP played key roles in creating the Presidio Parkway. WSP led the environmental review process, while Arup team members were involved in early conversations with landscape architect Michael Painter about the technical feasibility of the replacement of Doyle Drive and its existing infrastructure. The joint venture envisioned a solution that met Caltrans safety regulations and supported long-term traffic needs while also providing cost savings and significantly reducing and avoiding impacts to historic buildings and the environment.  

The joint venture provided multidisciplinary engineering to help bring the project to life, including management and technical support throughout construction. The joint venture was also instrumental in helping the project’s sponsors pursue a public-private partnership (P3) procurement method to deliver the Presidio Parkway at a time when P3 delivery was not a common infrastructure delivery method in the United States. The combination of traditional and P3 methods helped accelerate schedule to achieve seismic safety and to deliver the complex project on time and at a lower cost by managing potential risks.