Muni Central Subway | San Francisco in 15 weeks

View of above ground excavations down 4th Street.

By: Amabelle Ocampo

Construction workers prepare the ground for tunneling of the Muni Central Subway line. Soma and Union Square face street closures until April 8 according to San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA). Closure information will be updated weekly for the seven year project.

The Muni Central Subway line will ease travel to and from Union Square according to a press release.

The Union Square Market Street Station will connect directly to the existing Powell Street Station through an underground, concourse-to-concourse walkway. This efficient link will provide customers quick, easy access to BART and the other Muni Metro lines and improve connections to other Bay Area public transit systems.

The $1.6 billion project will be funded using a variety of federal, state, and local sources, including $942.2 million from the federal New Starts program. Of the total New Starts investment, $177.4 million has already been awarded to the Central Subway Project.

$210 million is estimated for the Union Square Market Street Station portion.

Construction work will delay travel on the following streets.

In Southern Soma, 4th Street between Harrison and Bryant, launch box construction continues. Two lanes of traffic will remain open. The on-ramp to westbound I-80 may be closed from 8 p.m. to 4 a.m. on weeknights and all day Saturday and Sunday.

Construction work in front of Whole Foods Market on 4th Street.

In Northern Soma, the sidewalk and three traffic lanes will be closed on the eastern side of 4th Street between Market and Stevenson streets, with a temporary pedestrian walkway around the construction zone. Two lanes of traffic will remain closed on 4th Street between Howard and Folsom.

Crews from Barnard, Impergio, and Healey Contractors prepare 4th Street in front of Children’s Creativity Museum.

In Union Square, Stockton Street between Ellis and Geary Street will be closed to all vehicles. Ellis Street between Stockton Street and Powell will be closed to westbound traffic. Stockton Street is planned to remain closed throughout the duration of the Central Subway construction around Union Square.

A large crane pulls dirt and pours it into a dump truck at Ellis and Stockton Street.

Close up of construction work between Forever 21, Apple Store, Diesel and Nieman Marcus Stores.

No Central Subway Construction is planned to occur in Chinatown or North Beach at this time.

Access to local businesses, residences and driveways will be maintained. The Central Subway Team continues to work with local business to inform them of construction impacts. Business owners can access the Central T Subway website for details.

About the Central Subway Project

The Central Subway Project will extend the T Third Line from the 4th Street Caltrain Station to Chinatown, providing a direct, rapid transit link from the Bayshore and Mission Bay areas to SoMa and downtown. Four new stations will be built along the 1.7-mile Central Subway Project alignment – a street-level station at 4th and Brannan streets and three subway stations: Yerba Buena/Moscone Station, Union Square/Market Street Station and Chinatown Station.

During peak hours, current travel between Stockton and Washington streets and 4th and King streets takes more than 20 minutes on the Muni trolleys. Travel times will be reduced to less than 8 minutes with the new subway line.

The Central Subway Project is the second phase of the SFMTA’s Third Street Light Rail Transit Project. The first segment of the T Third Line opened in April 2007, restoring light rail service to a high transit-ridership area of San Francisco for the first time in 50 years.