Ninth Street Bicycle Boulevard Pathway Extension Phase II

Supported by the City’s Bicycle Master Plan, adopted by Council in April 2017, the Project will close the last gap in this important north-south urban bicycle corridor, which serves many biking and walking trips by residents, employees, and retail customers in the Project’s immediate vicinity.  Construction began in March 2020 and is anticipated to be complete in Fall 2021. 

Phase I, completed in 2012, created a 0.1-mile, two-block section of Class 1 pathway from Murray Street to the Emeryville Greenway. Bicycle and pedestrian access from the Phase I pathway to the Ninth Street Bicycle Boulevard, is currently provided by a temporary Class 3 bicycle route on another section of Ninth Street that is separate from the main Ninth Street Bicycle Boulevard. A Class 3 bike route is a street designated for bicycle travel and shared with motor vehicles. This temporary route was constructed along Ninth Street between Anthony Street and Murray Street and on private property belonging to Berkeley Bowl West through a temporary easement, which was part of the provisions in their development agreement with the City. This Class 3 facility does not provide adequate bicycle and pedestrian access because it requires a longer, non-linear route and requires bicyclists to share a relatively narrow and congested road with motor vehicles. 

Phase II completes the pathway connection between West Berkeley and Emeryville by providing a safer, more direct, and continuous off-street route and intersection crossing, as opposed to the current temporary route. Phase II will construct the last two sections of new shared-use pathway on City-owned property; one section from the end of Ninth Street just south of the intersection with Heinz Avenue to Ashby Avenue, and the other section between Ashby Avenue and Murray Street. Phase II will also construct signal and intersection improvements near the intersection of Ninth Street and Ashby Avenue, where the pathway will cross Ashby Avenue.