BART directors at a meeting in Oakland Thursday approved a contract for construction of 22 canopies over entrances to four BART stations along Market Street in San Francisco.
The contract includes $64 million for 19 canopies and an option to build three more when funding is identified.
The locations are BART’s Embarcadero, Montgomery Street, Powell Street and Civic Center stations. Construction will take seven years because only one entrance to each station will be closed at a time.
BART officials said the canopies will protect new escalators approved last year and will also increase security and cleanliness.
Funding for the new canopies will come from voter-approved regional and state measures providing for transit improvements.
23 comments
$64 million, 7 years = 22 canopies. Is it April 1st already?
Smile. You skilled something. The 64 mil only covers 19 canopies. $3.368 mil each). They have to find the money for the other 3!! And you know how these work, it’s $64 mil today, they don’t bother proje ting the cost increase over the 7 years so by the time the project is done it’ll be at least $90 million.
“Voter Approved” har har I call it Dumbass Tax, because a lot of people will vote for it not realizing what they are actually voting for. Is it For the Children?
Long overdue.
So the pan handlers can get out of the rain.
7 years? I am sure Chicago could have done this in 6 months tops…lol
The one at Civic Center near Strand Theater is nice, but it is a single escalator with drug addicts at the top. The entrance at the other end of the block has no canopy or escalator and the steps are seats for drug activities-buying, selling, and “shooting up.”
Homeless people will love it!
Should have been included in the original architecture build. What genius thought having uncovered stairs/escalators was a good idea anyway?
Same person that thought BART didn’t originally have elevators. The 64 million also includes repairs to the escalators or replacement. This is actually a smart move for once by the BART BOD. The escalators don’t hold up well in the rain and weather. Not to mention when the canopy is installed the escalators are locked “Inside” at night and won’t have people messing with them.
$2.9 Million per canopy?? I’d like that contract please.
It’s a good thing Bart has plenty of money for all this wasteful spending. No way canopies should cost that much. Perhaps if they had real world experience represented on the board instead of activists, things could get done within a realistic budget. Lets be clear, 64 million for 19 canopies.
That’s enough money for 128 half a million dollar bay area homes.
The problem with the escalators is not the outside elements and trash it is with all the human waste from all the bums and homeless in S.F.. There are numerous previous news stories about that. Check for yourself about the cause of the escalator failures at BART.
The PG&E of transit.
Maybe spend the $22 million on stopping fare evaders.
64 MILLION!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I could create a construction company hires 40 workers and do it for HALF THAT.
64 MILLION !!!!!!!!!!!!
It will be nice for the homeless, they can live under the canopies. No one seems to do anything to control, eliminate, or decrease the problems, such as fare jumpers, panhandlers, homeless people hanging around the stations or riding the cars. How much $$ are they going to waste before they realize a lot of people are fed up with those unsolved problems?
Does $3.37 MILLION dollars a canopy make sense?! Why do they cost so much to build?
I’m a registered Democrat, and as I enter my 40’s, I’m getting more and more frustrated with overspending and waste. I’ve had 13+ patients moving out of state in the past 4 weeks. We are taxed to the max in California.
Free college! Free healthcare! Free groceries! Free housing! Free this! Free that! People do not generally appreciate things that are free.
You voted for all the bad that you are complaining about,and still you will continue to be democrat,and they wont change,and they will always lie to you.
I have an idea but I know many won’t agree with me. How about if all who ride BART become fare evaders? Perhaps if people stop paying for fare en masse it will lead to BART board members to pay attention; a wake up call. It’s not right to be honest and pay fare when it is those who take advantage of the system who benefit the most.
Good point. If fare-paying riders could organize one day where they all evaded paying fares, the BART Board would get the message. It would have to be carefully planned in advance and advertised well ahead of time with flyers handed out at stations on several days in advance of the date the event would take place, and radio and television news media coverage, i.e., “Group of BART riders organize a ‘No Pay Day’ to send BART Board a message.” It would take some doing to get everybody on board, but I think the results one might see would be worth it. The well-behaved BART riders are largely silent and over shadowed by those who aren’t. Since the well-behaved passengers are the majority, they are more powerful and need to flex their muscle to get somethings done to improve conditions on the system. If someone can organize a “No Pants Day,” BART riders should be able to organize a “No Pay Day.”
It was disturbing to recently hear, however, that a judge ruled that a man and his family who were attacked and robbed by a roving gang of teenagers a couple of years ago could not sue BART. BART’s position was it was not their fault because the attack occurred in the station and not on a train. Absurd! Video showed the station agent standing there watching the gang of teenagers jumping the gates to enter the station and it was reported the agent called for assistance. There should have been BART police on the spot in minutes to protect passenger’s life and limb. BART has evolved such absurd and irresponsible rationalization for its operations over years and no one appears to have challenged them on some of these bizarre positions. We can see that some of this developed following the Meserle incident which should never have been handled as it was. It has put every passenger, including Nia Wilson, at risk ever since. The BART Board works for and are paid by taxpayers and passengers, not the hooligans they coddle. They need to act like it.
Is that the lowest bid they received? Did they take bids or was this some kind of prearranged deal. I smell a rat.
Best put a porta potty and hand sanitizer dispenser next to each canopy, they’re gonna need it.
Won’t be safe in the dark and will hold the urine small in to delight riders senses!
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