The Flatiron/Herzog joint-venture was recently selected by Caltrain as the Construction Manager/General Contractor (CM/GC) to deliver the Broadway Grade Separation project. Located south of San Francisco in Burlingame, CA, the project will replace the Broadway at-grade crossing with a grade-separated crossing.
Photo credit: Caltrain
The Broadway at-grade crossing is ranked by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) as the highest priority grade separation project in the state due to it being the most dangerous crossing in California.
Broadway serves as the gateway access to the City of Burlingame from US 101 and provides a direct connection to the Downtown Broadway Business District. At the crossing, Broadway has six lanes of traffic and no shoulders or bicycle lanes. Over 70,000 pedestrians, cyclists, and vehicles travel on Broadway every day. This results in significant traffic queuing on Broadway, which extends to US 101 ramps in the eastbound and onto California Drive for the westbound direction. These conditions are further exacerbated by gate down times at the existing at‐ grade railroad crossing at Broadway with the 100+ daily Caltrain and Union Pacific trains that pass through.
The grade separation project involves the construction of a 5,400-foot-long grade separated structure over Broadway. This structure raises the two existing tracks above Broadway in a dedicated guideway. The Broadway Caltrain station will be relocated on top of the structure as an 875-foot-long center platform with ramp and stair access. The grade separation will alleviate traffic congestion at the crossing and increase safety for pedestrians, cyclists, and motorists. The expected decongestion will also reduce emissions by lowering the volume of vehicles sitting in traffic.
While the grade separation structure is built, Caltrain and Union Pacific train traffic will be shifted onto two temporary shoofly tracks. This will be the first project undertaken in the Caltrain rail corridor with trains operating on the new 25kV overhead electrification system.
“Flatiron/Herzog is excited to be part of this transformation project for Burlingame. We look forward to working collaboratively with Caltrain on their first CMGC project and the City of Burlingame and getting to work on planning and building this job,” shared Warren Hallam, Senior VP of Field Operations.
Caltrain gave the Flatiron/Herzog team Notice to Proceed (NTP) in March allowing the team to kick-off preconstruction phase services to finalize design and project costs. Construction is set to begin in 2025. The target date for project completion is set in 2028.