One hundred percent of tree material removed during the preconstruction activity was recycled or salvaged by Green Waste Recycle Yard in Richmond, California.
More than 50 native plant species, for a total of 45,000 plants, were collected in the Presidio prior to construction and are now being grown in the Presidio Nursery.
Many of the piles for the high viaduct will be 12 feet in diameter, requiring a special oscillator rig for installation of the piles. Larger, deeper piles mean fewer piles are necessary, opening views from the Presidio to the bay.
The new parkway will allow pedestrians and bicyclists to cross over or under Doyle Drive in accordance with the Presidio Trails and Bikeways Master Plan.
The new parkway will have larger 11- and 12-foot lanes to accommodate buses and provide an improved experience for drivers.
Each weekday, nearly 120,000 vehicles travel between Marin and San Francisco over the Golden Gate Bridge along Doyle Drive.
The start of construction of the Presidio Parkway was accelerated by more than a year thanks to the receipt of $50 million in federal stimulus funding.
The new parkway will improve traffic safety by including continuous shoulders for emergency and disabled vehicles.
The first set of tunnels, the Battery Tunnels, will be constructed north of the San Francisco National Cemetery and span 853 feet.
Halleck Street will be closed and temporarily removed during construction. Upon completion of the Main Post Tunnels, Halleck Street will be restored over the top of the new tunnels.
The Main Post Tunnels will be constructed north of the Main Post parade grounds. These will be the longer of the two sets of tunnels, spanning 1,017 feet.
$3.6 million went directly to small and local businesses for the project’s first preconstruction contract (tree removal and native plant and seed collection).
The new parkway will include extended bus bays on both sides of Richardson Avenue.
Seismic safety will be achieved in 2011 when traffic is transferred onto new structures and the temporary bypass adjacent to the existing facility.
A robust Disadvantaged and Small Business Enterprise Participation Program has been established to actively engage businesses throughout San Francisco, the Bay Area, and California to participate in the project.
The northbound and southbound roadways will be separated by a wide, landscaped median improving driver safety and creating a parkway feel.
Both sets of tunnels will be constructed using the cut and cover method by digging into the natural bluffs and covering the tunnels with a green pedestrian corridor.
Including a temporary bypass in the construction phasing reduced the construction duration by nearly two years.
Concrete is used more than any other man-made material in the world

History

Replacement Project History | Doyle Drive History | The Doyle Drive Historic Corridor

The Doyle Drive Historic Corridor

Historic Coastal Defense System << back


	Looking north from Battery Baldwin toward the U.S. Coast Guard Life Saving Station (today the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary Visitor Center) and San Francisco Bay, ca. 1905–1910. Courtesy Golden Gate National Recreation Area, Park Archives (Presidio Army Museum Collection, GOGA 35245.0611)

BEGINNING AROUND THE TIME OF THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR of 1898, the Army constructed four coastal defense batteries along the bluff north of the San Francisco National Cemetery: Batteries Slaughter, Sherwood, Blaney, and Baldwin. They were products of the “Endicott Era” of coastal defense improvements that specified poured concrete batteries instead of brick forts or earthen batteries, and the development of larger, more powerful, and more accurate weaponry. Armaments included 8- 10- and 12-inch caliber guns often mounted on “disappearing” carriages that allowed guns to remain invisible to battleships while being loaded and serviced.

BATTERY SLAUGHTER WAS THE FIRST AND LARGEST BATTERY built on the bluff. It included two magazines and three emplacements armed with 8-inch guns mounted on disappearing carriages. Battery Sherwood, built for two 5-inch non-disappearing rapid-fire guns on pedestal mounts, was completed in 1901. Battery Baldwin was completed in the same year. Battery Blaney was completed in 1902. Eventually, Battery Baldwin was armed with two 3-inch rapid-fire guns on pillar mounts and Battery Blaney with four 3-inch guns.

Map of Fort Scott and Presidio of San Francisco, California, 1918 (annotated). Courtesy Golden Gate National Recreation Area, Park Archives (D311F2).

ADVANCES IN HARBOR DEFENSE TACTICS made these batteries and guns obsolete and they were disarmed by 1920. With the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge, Battery Baldwin and portions of Battery Slaughter were either partially demolished or buried to make way for Doyle Drive.

IN 1905, NEW IMPROVEMENTS TO SAN FRANCISCO’S COASTAL DEFENSES focused on artillery targeting or “fire control.” The Coast Artillery Corps replaced direct sighting of targets with a new, more accurate, and more complex “base end” targeting system that required multiple sighting or base end stations and rapid transmission and processing of target data.

Coastal artillery plotting room, 1942. The Coastal Artillery Corpsmen pictured here are performing the kinds of targeting calculations which earlier Corpsmen would have performed within the plotting rooms of batteries armed with larger guns (8-inch or more) such as Battery Slaughter. San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library

BUILT IN 1909 BETWEEN BATTERY BALDWIN AND THE CAVALRY STABLES, Switchboard Room No. 3 was the communications hub for the batteries. Telephone cables reached from Fort Winfield Scott in the western part of the Presidio through the lower level of Switchboard Room No. 3 and continued to the Presidio’s Main Post. Branch telephone lines extended the main line north to the batteries and to Fort Winfield Scott’s Ninth Command fire control station built in 1909. A critical part of the coastal artillery system, this telecommunications technology allowed the Army to implement the new base end targeting system.