Overview
A view of the Presidio Parkway tunnels

Photo: Caltrans

Introduction

The Presidio Parkway is the 1.6 mile portion of US Route 101 located within the Presidio of San Francisco. The roadway winds 1.5 miles along the northern edge of San Francisco, connecting the San Francisco peninsula to the Golden Gate Bridge and the North Bay. 

The Presidio Parkway replaced the prior facility known as Doyle Drive which was built in 1936 in concert with the Golden Gate Bridge. The new Presidio Parkway replacement features a world-class parkway design that improved the seismic, structural and traffic safety of the roadway. It provided new, direct vehicular connections to the Presidio National Park and enabled the Presidio Tunnel Tops park, while featuring multi-modal access to the Marina for those on foot, bicycles and transit. 

The project was sponsored by Caltrans and the San Francisco County Transportation Authority and opened to the public in July 2015, following construction of its first phase via traditional design-bid-build delivery method and its second phase via a public-private partnership with Golden Link Concessionaire (GLC).

Project Partners

The Doyle Drive replacement project was jointly led by the Transportation Authority and Caltrans.

Project Features and Benefits

The project features numerous innovations and improvements including:

  • A community-led design process for selecting the design of the Parkway, respecting the historic and scenic setting of the Presidio and surrounding Golden Gate National Recreation Area
  • Federal, state, and local funding approach featuring a federal TIFIA loan and innovative private financing
  • Enabling the creation of the Presidio’s Tunnel Tops and Battery Bluff parks over the roadway
  • A sustainable design and construction with Greenroads certification, the first in the United States
  • Preserving the Presidio’s historic buildings and sensitive sites, while reconnecting the Presidio to the San Francisco Bay waterfront and restoring wetlands and riparian areas
  • The first public-private partnership on the state highway system to jointly deliver, maintain and operate the new highway and return it to Caltrans in a state of good repair
  • Creating thousands of jobs to support the Bay Area’s local and regional economy

Originally built in 1936 as one of the New Deal projects, Doyle Drive had reached the end of its useful life after over 75 years of use.  Click here to learn about the project’s history and background.

Project recognition 

The project has received several achievement awards:

  • Infrastructure Project Award (2016)
    • National Council for Public-Private Partnerships (NCPPP)
       
  • America's Transportation Awards (2016)
     
  • California Transportation Foundation Project of the Year (2016)
    • Acknowledged for its overall project excellence
       
  • Greenroads Foundation Bronze Certification (2015)
    • First certified sustainable highway project in the U.S. in 2015

Cost & Funding

In addition to funding provided from Transportation Authority's Prop K transportation sales tax and the State of California, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission and the Golden Gate Bridge Highway and Transportation District committed regional funding to the project.

Resources

Presidio Trust websites

U.S. Department of Transportation project webpage

Contact

info@sfcta.org

Background

Originally built in 1936 as one of the New Deal projects, Doyle Drive served as one of San Francisco’s key access roads to the Golden Gate Bridge. After over 75 years of use, the route, also known as U.S. 101, had become structurally and seismically deficient and needed to be replaced.  

Since the early 1970s, Caltrans had been preparing plans for updating Doyle Drive’s aging infrastructure. Various studies were conducted and in 1992, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors established a Doyle Drive Task Force to consider Caltrans’ design concepts and determine a preferred replacement. In February 1993, the task force submitted its recommendations to the Board of Supervisors. In that same year, Caltrans completed a Project Study Report in that same year, which contained several alternatives for the replacement of Doyle Drive and took into consideration the recommendations of the Doyle Drive Task Force. This report was the first step toward securing state funding for the project.

In 1996, the Transportation Authority completed the Doyle Drive Intermodal Study, which called for the following features to be included in the replacement project to support multimodal transit:

  • A center divider barrier to eliminate head-on collisions
  • Direct vehicular and transit access to the new Presidio National Park
  • Vastly improved design to expand views of the Golden Gate Bridge and the National Park and increase safety
  • Expanded transit, carpooling, and alternative commute options
  • Intelligent Transportation System technologies for vehicular safety enhancement and transit schedule coordination

Environmental assessment for the project began in 2000, and the Draft Environmental Impact Statement/Report was released in 2005. On September 26, 2006, the Transportation Authority Board unanimously selected the Presidio Parkway alternative, a design created by local landscape architect Michael Painter.

Input received during the comment period, as well as refinements to the Preferred Alternative, are reflected in the Final Environmental Impact Statement/Report that was circulated in October 2008 and certified on December 16, 2008. To ensure that the project reflected community needs, a comprehensive public involvement and agency coordination program was conducted. Community consensus on the project’s design was achieved in 2009.