Berkeley Hills Tunnel

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Berkeley Hills Tunnel
East portal of Berkeley Hills Tunnel, March 2018.JPG
East portal structure of the Berkeley Hills Tunnel
Overview
Other name(s)Caldecott BART Tunnel
Line  Y   Yellow Line
Location Alameda County, California
Coordinates Oakland portal:
37°51′05″N122°14′17″W / 37.85139°N 122.23806°W / 37.85139; -122.23806
Orinda portal:
37°52′29″N122°11′16″W / 37.87472°N 122.18778°W / 37.87472; -122.18778
System Bay Area Rapid Transit
Crosses Berkeley Hills, Hayward Fault
Start Rockridge Station, Oakland
End Orinda Station, Orinda
No. of stationsNone
Operation
Work begun1965
Constructed drill-and-blast
OpenedMay 21, 1973;50 years ago (1973-05-21)
Owner San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District
Operator San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District
Character Rapid transit
Technical
Line length3.1 mi (5.0 km)
No. of tracks 2
Track gauge 5 ft 6 in (1,676 mm)
(Indian gauge)
Electrified Third rail, 1000 V DC
Tunnel clearance 16.8 feet (5.1 m) [1]
Grade 1.2% (2% max) [2] [3]

The Berkeley Hills Tunnel is a tunnel which carries Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) Yellow Line through the Berkeley Hills between Rockridge station and Orinda station.

Contents

Design

While the tracks run in the median of California State Route 24 on both sides of the tunnel, the Berkeley Hills Tunnel allows the tracks to take a straighter alignment offset to the north of the Caldecott Tunnel.

The tunnel bores through the Berkeley Hills east of Berkeley and Oakland a distance of 3.1 miles (5.0 km) [3] through a variety of rock strata, most of which are soft and porous. The earthquake-active Hayward Fault bisects the tunnel about 900 feet (270 m) inside the west portal (Oakland side). There are 2 bores, each 17.5 feet (5.3 m) in diameter, [3] spaced 50 feet (15 m) apart. Pedestrian cross-tunnels are spaced every 1,000 feet (300 m) for emergency evacuation in case of fire, etc. There is a ventilation structure at the east portal with roll-down doors that can close off the tunnel end to allow air to be sucked out or blown in.

By 2017, cumulative minor damage from fault creep had significantly reduced the tunnel's cross section, to the point where BART determined it was necessary to plan for repair and mitigation against future creep. [4] The work, which includes excavating the tunnel walls and realigning the tracks, is expected to cost $60 million. [5]

Construction

Construction of the tunnel began in early February, 1965. The bores were holed through by March, 1967, and construction completed in July, 1968. [6] The tunnel was opened for revenue service on May 21, 1973, with the Concord line. [7]

Material removed in the construction of the tunnel was used as fill for a concurrent expansion of the Port of Oakland. [8]

Incidents

On December 4, 2013, a BART train suffered mechanical braking problems and made an emergency stop in the tunnel near Rockridge station. Eleven people were treated for smoke inhalation. [9]

See also

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">California State Route 24</span> Highway in California

State Route 24 is a heavily traveled east–west state highway in the U.S. state of California that serves the eastern side of the San Francisco Bay Area. A freeway throughout its entire length, it runs from the Interstate 580/Interstate 980 interchange in Oakland, and through the Caldecott Tunnel under the Berkeley Hills, to the Interstate 680 junction in Walnut Creek. It lies in Alameda County, where it is highly urban, and Contra Costa County, where it passes through wooded hillsides and suburbs. SR 24 is a major connection between the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge/MacArthur Maze complex and the inland cities of the East Bay.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caldecott Tunnel</span> Four-bore passage for CA SR 24 under the Berkeley Hills

The Caldecott Tunnel is a four-bore highway tunnel through the Berkeley Hills between Oakland and Orinda, California. Its four bores carry California State Route 24. Named after Thomas E. Caldecott, former mayor of Berkeley, it opened in 1937 as a two-bore tunnel. The third bore opened in 1964 and the fourth bore in 2013. Currently, the two oldest bores carry eastbound traffic and the two newest bores carry westbound traffic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hayward Fault Zone</span> Geological fault in the San Francisco Bay Area

The Hayward Fault Zone is a right-lateral strike-slip geologic fault zone capable of generating destructive earthquakes. The fault was first named in the Lawson Report of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake in recognition of its involvement in the earthquake of 1868. This fault is about 119 km (74 mi) long, situated mainly along the western base of the hills on the east side of San Francisco Bay. It runs through densely populated areas, including Richmond, El Cerrito, Berkeley, Oakland, San Leandro, Castro Valley, Hayward, Union City, Fremont, and San Jose.

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Rockridge station is a Bay Area Rapid Transit station located in the Rockridge district of Oakland, California. Located in the center median of the elevated State Route 24 west of the Caldecott Tunnel, the station has a single island platform serving two tracks. It is served by the Yellow Line.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rockridge, Oakland, California</span> Neighborhood of Oakland in Alameda, California, US

Rockridge is a residential neighborhood and commercial district in Oakland, California. Rockridge is generally defined as the area east of Telegraph Avenue, south of the Berkeley city limits, west of the Oakland hills and north of the intersection of Pleasant Valley Avenue/51st Street and Broadway. Rockridge was listed by Money Magazine in 2002 as one of the "best places to live".

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The Berkeley Hills are a range of the Pacific Coast Ranges that overlook the northeast side of the valley that encompasses San Francisco Bay. They were previously called the "Contra Costa Range/Hills", but with the establishment of Berkeley and the University of California, the current usage was applied by geographers and gazetteers.

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References

  1. "Figure 12".
  2. "The Composite Report Bay Area Rapid Transit". Archive.org. Parsons Brinckerhoff / Tudor / Bechtel. pp. 19, 20. Retrieved 23 July 2018.
  3. 1 2 3 Rogers & Peck. "Engineering Geology of the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) System, 1964-75". Index of /~mly/www.geolith.com. Geolith Engineering. Retrieved 22 June 2017.
  4. "August Monthly Meeting: Caldecott BART Tunnel Creep Repair - SEAONC". www.seaonc.org. Archived from the original on 2017-12-01. Retrieved 2018-11-05.
  5. "BART Board Workshop" (PDF). San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit Agency. February 2018. Retrieved April 28, 2019.
  6. "Engineering Geology of the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) System, 1964-75", Geolith Consultants, 2000, archived from a defunct website
  7. "BART Chronology January 1947 – March 2009" (PDF). San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District. March 2009. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 13, 2013.
  8. Berkeley Gazette, October 24, 1966, p.13
  9. Shields, Brian (December 4, 2013). "BART Brake Smoke Causes Injuries in Caldecott Tube". KRON4. Archived from the original on March 2, 2014. Retrieved 2013-12-05.