An effort to make the southern end of Lake Merritt more pedestrian and bicycle friendly, give easy access from the lake to major downtown civic structures and improve the local environment appears to be coming to fruition. The 12th Street Bridge project is expected to begin construction this Spring, with the Oakland City Council to consider approving a construction bid on March 2. Funded in part by Measure DD bond money, the project has been in the works for eight years.

“We see it as an extension of the pleasures that so many get from the lake and the lake area,” said resident James E. Vann, a member of the Coalition of Advocates for Lake Merritt (CALM), which advocated for the changes. “More than just joggers and runners and walkers now, there will actually be activities that will be able to take place at that end of the lake. We see it as a real recreational destination.”

That destination will include an 4-acre park with a waterfront overlook, new pedestrian and bike paths, and open-water bridges running over what are now culverts at 12th Street and 10th Street.

The project will begin with the piece-by-piece construction of a new six-lane roadway that will replace the 12-lane expressway that now dominates the area. A temporary road will be set up on the parking lot of the Henry J. Kaiser Auditorium to allow motorists to continue driving eastbound during construction.

The removal of the culvert at 12th Street and the construction of the new vehicular bridge running over the open water will follow.

In a later phase, Lakeshore Avenue will be given 75 diagonal parking spaces and end in a cul-de-sac at 12th Street. The 12-lane roadway will be removed and finally, the park will be built, along with a number of new pedestrian and bicycle pathways.

“A key goal is to establish connectors between the lake and the neighborhoods around it,” said Joel Peter, the program manager for Measure DD.

To that end, there will be a separate open-water bridge for pedestrians and bicyclists that that will connect to the trails along Lakeshore Avenue and Lakeside Drive.

Two segments of that path will continue south alongside either side of the channel and lead to the nearby Oakland Museum and Laney College. A tidal marsh will be created on the west side of the channel.

Those paths will eventually connect to 10th Street, where a similar plan to build a vehicle bridge and remove a culvert is expected to start construction later this year, Peter said. The two projects will likely finish around the same time – about two and a half years from now.

The current 12th Street configuration at that end of Lake Merritt was built in 1949, when the car was king, Peter said. The general idea behind the 12th Street project is to bring back a calmer boulevard more in keeping with the park-like setting around Lake Merritt.

“This will enhance the park and pedestrian uses and put less emphasis on the automobile commute route,” he said.

With the culvert removed, the open channel will be 100 feet  wide – about twice as much space that water will have to flow to the lake, which will increase oxygen in the water and make a better habitat for wildlife, Peter said. The open water will also allow kayaks to travel between the lake and the estuary.

Because of the environmental elements, the city has received an $8 million grant from the Coastal Conservancy to help fund the project. An additional $13.1 million is coming from the United States Department of Transportation Highway Bridge Program.

The balance of the funding for the $32 million project will come from Measure DD bond funds, a $198 million bond measure Oakland voters overwhelmingly approved in 2002.

Around Lake Merritt, Measure DD money has gone toward the replacement of the pergola and the creation of a pedestrian plaza at El Embarcadero; reducing vehicle lanes, creating new bike lanes and improving the landscaping and pedestrian paths on Lakeshore Avenue; renovating Children’s Fairyland and building a new theater there; and restoring the Lake Merritt Boathouse for public use.

The 12th Street Bridge project, considered the biggest and highest-profile part of Measure DD, was delayed for two years after the city was sued over the removal of hundreds of trees associated with the improvements at Lake Merritt. Another delay came when the city sought federal funding for the project after an initial bidding process in 2006 came in with one bid that was too high.

Following a second bidding process, the City Council will consider awarding a contract to east Oakland contractors McGuire & Hester for $32 million, which is $13 million under the city’s budget for the project.

Peter said he expects the City Council to approve the contract on March 2, despite a controversy over local hiring. The use of federal funding has complicated the awarding of the contract because federal guidelines thwart local hiring goals.

“Some people feel there’s not enough local hiring on the project,” Peter said. “That’s the root of it all.”

Yet on Tuesday, Feb. 22, the city’s public works committee recommended that the contract go to the council for approval while the contractor made a voluntary commitment to a goal of hiring more local residents, Peter said.

Once the project is completed, local residents can look forward to five new traffic lights on 12th Street, the addition of 11 new fixtures for the necklace of lights around the lake and the removal of the three dark underground tunnels which have been closed for years due to safety concerns.

The 12th Street project emerged almost 10 years ago as a response to a plan by the Diocese of Oakland to build on the parking lot of the shuttered Henry J. Kaiser Auditorium, Vann said. The Coalition of Advocates for Lake Merritt designed its own plan for the area and it was accepted into the Lake Merritt masterplan, which the City Council approved in 2001.

“We felt that this land needed to remain in city ownership as  parkland or for civic purposes and not to be sold off to a private entity,” Vann said.

As for the shuttered auditorium, there’s talk that Laney College may consider purchasing it for its own uses, said Naomi Schiff, a board member of the Oakland Heritage Alliance.

Overall, she said, the 12th Street project will be a profound change for the area.

“Right now it really looks pretty sad over there,” she said, “so this will be a major improvement.”