Lake Merritt overhaul is beginning to take shape

Oakland Tribune, Mar 26, 2004 by Cecily Burt, STAFF WRITER

OAKLAND -- Lake Merritt visitors might not be able to see it, but work has quietly begun on the laundry list of improvements Oakland voters bought when they overwhelmingly approved a $198.2 million bond in 2002.

The city awarded Oakland architectural firm Rajappan and Meyer Consulting Engineers a $4.7 million contract to design a crucial component of the overall plan for the lake: conversion of 12 impenetrable traffic lanes at the southern tip of the lake into a collection of six pedestrian-friendly, tree-lined streets.

Measure DD pays for a major overhaul of Lake Merritt to improve water quality and circulation, revamp aging recreational facilities and walking paths and improve access to the southern shoreline and Estuary Park.

A big chunk of the bond -- $47.5 million -- is dedicated for design and construction services related to 12th Street, including removal of the 12th Street Dam to allow water to flow freely to and from the Estuary to the lake. That should improve circulation and give boaters access to Estuary Channel Park.

A new pedestrian bridge will span the channel near the lake shore, and two dirty and underused tunnels that provide the only pedestrian access from the Kaiser Center to the lake will be removed. A new aesthetically pleasing auto bridge will replace the wasteland of concrete there now.

And residents should get what they've been clamoring for -- a new park, beach and pier at the south end of the lake, with an easy way to get there from the Kaiser Convention Center and the Oakland Museum, both by bike and on foot.

Rajappan and Meyer specializes in transportation/boulevard designs. The company will partner with ROMA Design Group for the landscape planning and artistic end of things. ROMA has designed several waterfront projects, including the promenade along the San Francisco Embarcadero.

"But this particular project will be slightly different (for both companies)," said Bala Rajappan, principal of Rajappan and Meyer. "There is a lot of landscape, pedestrian paths, hardscape, stream channels. It's not going to be pure transportation and not pure landscape. It's one of its kind."

The plan actually restores some of what modern progress took away. Historically, the lake wasn't a lake at all. It was the San Antonio Slough, and boats traveled freely from San Francisco Bay to the slough's inland shores. The dam that created the lake was built in 1869 to prevent flooding.

Although water flows through a channel from the Estuary to the lake, it is routed through underground culverts from Seventh Street until it appears on the Lake's southern shore.

Removing the dam and eventually removing a culvert at 10th Street and a flood-control pump station at Seventh Street will allow better water circulation into the lake and allow boaters to travel from the lake down the Estuary channel, at least as far as Interstate 880 and the Union Pacific railroad crossing. Beyond that, it's open water.

"Of course, we're only talking about gondolas, not sailboats," said Jose Martinez, the city's street design coordinator for the project. "But we're very excited. ... I grew up in Oakland, and I worked at Lake Merritt as a kid. I had to literally walk over the culverts to get to work at the gardens, so it's exciting to be part of making it better."

Rajappan and Meyer will complete the environmental documents and obtain permits for removal of the 10th Street culvert and relocation of a flood-control pump at Seventh Street, although Measure DD allocated $26 million in separate funding for design and construction of those two projects.

Caltrans is separately working on plans for a new freeway overpass, and eventually the railroad crossing will be elevated, allowing boats to travel the length of the channel, Rajappan said.

Community members who fought long and hard to block development along the lake and to gain better access to the shore say they are pleased ROMA is involved and that plans are moving ahead.

"I have to give the city congratulations, because there has been an attempt to move fairly rapidly on DD spending," said James Vann, a member of CALM -- Coalition of Advocates for Lake Merritt -- and a representative on a community coalition that meets regularly with the city to monitor the bond implementation.

The company hopes to have the design documents done in two years, Rajappan said.

Construction, estimated at about $33 million, is scheduled to begin in 2007 and take two years, he said.