Cesar Chavez Pathway Project

The project design is completed and was scheduled to begin construction However, in 2025, the Regional Water Quality Control Board (“Water Board”) issued a regulatory compliance letter to the City of Berkeley indicating that industrial waste materials containing certain radionuclides may have been disposed at the landfill in the 1980s underneath what became Cesar Chavez Park.  The letter required the City to initiate a comprehensive work plan of environmental testing and reporting. For any excavation work of one foot or deeper below the surface, the work plan requires the use of worker safety equipment and procedures that dramatically increases the cost of the project beyond any existing project funding.  As a result, the Cesar Chavez Park Perimeter Pathway Project is currently on-hold until the City can obtain funds to implement the project.

Further details and reports about the City’s environmental testing work at the former landfill can be found at the following City website: Cesar Chavez Park Closed Landfill Improvement Project.