The city of Berkeley is planning to expand its website that lists closures and delays on city streets and sidewalks to include all public works projects and private construction, and to develop a system to alert residents of projects ahead of time.
City Councilmember Brent Blackaby proposed the changes at Tuesday’s City Council meeting, where the council decided to have city staff begin brainstorming on how it can be done.
“(This proposal is about) getting city staff and the communications team to put their heads together to do this in an effective way without requiring a massive amount of additional work from staff,” Blackaby said. “We want this to be a win-win.”
Berkeley’s existing portal for traffic advisories shows public works projects, but doesn’t include them all, and although most construction projects go through public approval processes, neighbors often go unaware of construction plans until paper notices are erected near the planned sites.
“We shouldn’t have to expect people to know where to find the information — we should inform them proactively,” Blackaby said. “Right now, it’s ‘if they see it, they see it’. We should be proactively reaching out with outbound communications as well.”
Berkeley is planning a variety of street and sidewalk repair projects in upcoming years following the passage of Measure FF, a parcel tax passed by the city’s voters in November 2024.
“We’re going to have a lot more work that is going to happen, so it’s better to get that figured out now,” Blackaby said.
Potential solutions
Many Bay Area cities have online maps, like Berkeley’s Street Repair Plan Map, that show major public works and capital improvement projects, but they do not include smaller projects, like traffic light maintenance or minor sidewalk repairs.
Cities like Concord, Santa Clara and Sunnyvale have information on a variety of private construction projects on digital maps, but they largely show new developments, excluding smaller projects like home remodels that might still disturb the flow of traffic.
“I’m sure there are other cities doing this — but maybe we can come up with some innovative ways and be a trailblazer,” Blackaby said. “This is the kind of thing you might take for granted, but it could be really appreciated if we do it well, and show the city is being responsive to the needs and concerns of residents.”
Even in cities where both public works projects and private construction information is available online, residents need to compare several different maps to get the full picture on traffic delays and potential construction in their area.
San Francisco has a map of active construction projects throughout the city, and a Temporary Street Closures Map that shows street and sidewalk closures for even minor repairs.
They also implemented a Neighbor Notification system that mails notices of construction permit applications to residents living within 150 feet of the project and any registered neighborhood group before the 30-day public review period, in addition to adding the information to an interactive map.
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