Interstate 880 between Broadway and Jackson Street traverses the south side of Oakland downtown and is heavily congested due to substandard weaving sections between freeway ramps and the split between I-880 and I-980. Coupled with heavy traffic volume, the freeway carries very heavy load of truck traffic. Several studies have been conducted in past but no preferred solution has been identified. Congestions along this freeway and connecting streets are expected to get worse due to several anticipated large-scale land development projects in both the Cities of Oakland and Alameda.

The purpose of this project is to develop a strategic solution that would improve freeway and street access to serve proposed development projects in City of Alameda and City of Oakland. The suggested project improvements should not only improve access to and from freeway, but also not cause traffic congestion and pedestrian safety concerns in Oakland Chinatown, Oakland downtown, and Jack London Square.

CHS Consulting Group has been involved in the project over the last five years. Our involvement in the first round of the planning project involved traffic analysis for surface streets in the area. CHS led traffic operations tasks and also served as a liaison with the Chinatown organizations. CHS performed freeway, ramp junction, and arterial street analyses. Arterial traffic analyses were performed using SYNCHRO and SIM TRAFFIC.

CHS assisted the prime consultant in the assessment of design concepts, including adding new and deleting existing ramps, and evaluation of benefits and impacts of design alternatives. Currently CHS is part of the consulting team assessing alternative options and building consensus with agency and community stakeholders.