CalTrans announced on April 9 that Doyle Drive, the Marina District’s main approach to the Golden Gate Bridge, would be closed from Friday, April 27 at 8 p.m. until Monday, April 30 at 5 a.m. so major demolition of the aged roadway could begin. It was short notice for such significant disruption to a major bridge arterial, but they hope they got the word out in time for motorists to avoid Doyle Drive, if not the Golden Gate Bridge entirely, for the weekend.
During the closure, a new bypass road behind the Palace of Fine Arts and slightly north of the existing Richardson interchange has been constructed. This bypass will be in use until the Presidio Parkway project is completed in 2015.
The weekend’s construction connects a new Marina Boulevard and Lombard/Richardson signaled intersection to the bypass. Built in 2011, the intersection has sat unused in the Palace of Fine Arts parking lot until now. Westbound Marina Boulevard has been reconfigured to end at this new intersection, and two left-turn lanes provide eastbound access to Marina Boulevard off the bypass. Richardson Avenue has also been reshaped to meet the
new intersection.
As drivers head toward the bridge, the temporary bypass road winds onto permanent southbound sections of the new Presidio Parkway: the 1,036-foot-long Battery Tunnel and the 1,340-foot-long Presidio (High) Viaduct. Construction of this section of the project has been visible alongside Doyle Drive for the past two years.
When the parkway project is fully complete, these sections will be used exclusively for southbound traffic coming off the bridge. Until then, however, the tunnel, viaduct (the term for a bridge over land) and connecting roadway will be used for both north and southbound
