Recently, the City of San Francisco has been getting 80 cruise ship calls on a yearly basis, and this demand is projected to increase to 98-118 yearly calls in the future.  The Port of San Francisco selected Piers 27-29 for a world-class cruise terminal to meet this anticipated demand.  The site has been used as an overflow cruise terminal when more than two ships port in San Francisco at the same time.  The project must be designed to fit the budget set by the Port of San Francisco.  Key project transportation issues involve minimizing conflicts with high volumes of pedestrian flows along the Embarcadero promenade and traffic impacts along the Embarcadero.

CHS Consulting Group has been involved in this project since the conceptual design phase.  We developed several conceptual circulation options for all transportation modes (pedestrians, autos, taxis, buses, and trucks) to access the cruise terminal from the Embarcadero, as well as internal circulation plans.  The key issues included the number of curb-cuts off the Embarcadero, access for passenger vehicles, taxis, buses, and trucks, circulation, parking, and storage on the project site.  As part of the design development phase, CHS conducted a detailed survey of passenger trip-generation counts and travel behavior for both home-port and non-home port ships and used the data to develop a refined passenger volume forecast by mode and by hour for both arrival and departure periods, and for both base-case (2,600-passenger ship) and optimal-case (4,000-passenger ship) scenarios.  CHS also developed a detailed VISSIM micro simulation model to test two major design options for vehicular and pedestrian circulation inside Piers 27-29.  The micro simulation analysis includes proposed traffic operations and management strategies during the peak passenger arrival and departure periods.

CHS successfully worked with the conceptual design team, Port staff, and cruise operators in narrowing down the potential options during the conceptual design phase, and worked with the final design team and City staff to select a preferred design plan for the pedestrian, auto, taxi, bus, and truck access and parking within the project site.  CHS’s work was peer-reviewed by A design firm specializing in cruise terminal design peer-reviewed the CHS recommendations and found them to be sound and valid.