Oakland, CA

Bay Area Rapid Transit, Earthquake Safety Program

Scope/Solutions

Carrying about 360,000 commuters every day, Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) is an important part of the region’s transportation infrastructure. Knowing that the transit system could experience a major earthquake, BART initiated the Earthquake Safety Program to upgrade vulnerable and high-volume sections of the system to help them quickly reinstate service following an event. Under a term contract, SGH performed seismic assessments and assisted with upgrading this critical transit system.

Over a four-year period, SGH assessed the seismic vulnerability of station buildings and platforms, repair yard facilities, control towers, administrative offices, and parking garages system-wide. Highlights of our work include the following:

  • Performed seismic evaluations and developed preliminary upgrade designs for seven elevated parking structures, maintenance facilities at Hayward and Daly City stations, administrative offices, and system control towers
  • Developed seismic criteria for designing new parking structures and retrofitting existing parking structures
  • Peer reviewed a seismic evaluation of the McArthur station
  • Mentored and provided technical review for BART in-house engineers performing upgrades of some buildings and structures
  • Acted as the engineer for record for the seismic upgrades of the Pleasant Hill parking structure, designed new shear walls within the frames adjacent to the speed ramps, and developed a solution resulting in no loss of parking spaces and allowing construction while the structure remained in service

Project Summary

Icon: completion-date

2008

Completion Date
Solutions
Repair & Rehabilitation
Services
Structures
Markets
Infrastructure & Transportation
Specialized Capabilities
Seismic Engineering

Key team members

Ronald Hamburger
Consulting Principal

Additional Projects

West

New Marine Terminal

SGH prepared conceptual designs and developed design criteria for replacement of the entire marine terminal. 
Explore
West

Owens Dry Lake Project

SGH specified a system for monitoring and controlling the installation quality without specifying means and methods of construction. Measurements of deflection and flattening demonstrated that the installation met the performance requirements and the pipe is performing well.
Explore