For some time, the Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center has been fenced off and piles of concrete sit across the street on the south end of Lake Merritt. It’s the beginning of a two-year, $35 million construction project that will produce a new four-acre park and replace the current 12-lane expressway with six lanes and bike lanes.

The 12th Street project, as it’s known, is being funded primarily through Measure DD bond money, which Oakland voters approved in 2002. During construction, motorists should expect delays in the area and should try to take alternate routes, said Joel Peter, the project manager for the Measure DD projects.

“For people who regularly drive through that area, my advice is to think hard about finding a different route to go,” Peter said. “Because we will be keeping the roadway open in both directions, but it will certainly be congested.”

When it’s completed, 12th Street will be transformed into a tree-lined boulevard with signalized intersections and crosswalks and a landscaped median. The underground tunnels and retaining wall separating the roadway and the water will be demolished.

“They’re going to build this all over again, really,” said Naomi Schiff, a board member and former president of the Oakland Heritage Alliance. She added that the project has been in the works for nine years.

“That might sound like a long time, but as civic public works projects go, that’s not too bad,” she said.

During construction, 12th Street will be narrowed with just a couple of lanes going west and eastbound with the contractor working in the middle of the road. The overpasses near the Alameda County Courthouse and at the east end of the project area will be demolished. The rubble that’s sitting along 12th Street is curb and gutter concrete removed from the parking lot of the Kaiser Center. The parking lot will be used as a temporary roadway for eastbound traffic.

“There will be a tremendous amount of demolition and grading work going on,” Peter said.

Peter added that there will be additional work at the corner of 14th Street and Lakeside to expand the pedestrian island on the north side of that intersection while eliminating the right-hand slip turn for automobiles, which will improve pedestrian safety there. During construction, pedestrians will be rerouted away from construction, but it shouldn’t affect automobile traffic, Peter said.

“That’s one task people will see contractor working on very soon,” Peter said.

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, which includes the Lake Chalet Seafood Bar and Grill.

A groundbreaking event for the 12th Street project, as it’s known, was held on May 6. Construction will include the removal of culverts and new vehicle and pedestrian bridges will be built over the water that leads from the lake to the Oakland Estuary.

The project is expected to improve the water quality and allow kayaking and canoeing from the lake to the bay.

“It’s a major project. It will have significant impacts on not just Oakland, but the entire East Bay region,” said James Vann, a member of the Coalition of Advocates for Lake Merritt, which advocated for the project. “I think it will become new recreation destination for all residents of the East Bay.”