{"id":76759,"date":"2025-12-01T14:35:18","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T14:35:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/76759\/"},"modified":"2025-12-01T14:35:18","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T14:35:18","slug":"west-side-residents-dread-yearlong-19th-avenue-roadwork","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/76759\/","title":{"rendered":"West-side residents dread yearlong 19th Avenue roadwork"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Dec. 1, Caltrans will start repaving 19th Avenue \u2014 the CA Route 1 north\u2013south traffic artery on San Francisco\u2019s west side. Residents are bracing for a miserable year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The street is already clogged with cars, particularly at rush hour. Drivers and bus commuters should expect even more traffic, noise, and disruption for the next 12 months, according to the transit agency.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s gonna be a disaster,\u201d said Mary Kwong, who lives on 19th Avenue near Wawona Street and takes the thoroughfare to the Golden Gate Bridge as part of her daily commute to a San Rafael hospital.<\/p>\n

Residents say the avenue badly needs repaving \u2014 but the timing stings. Construction begins less than a year after the Great Highway closure funneled more commuters onto an already crowded 19th Avenue. Once the road work starts, Sunset Boulevard will be the last fully open north-south corridor on the west side, and neighbors are dreading the congestion to come.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be horrible while it happens,\u201d said Sloat Boulevard resident Michelle Burton, 82. \u201cBut it\u2019d be less horrible if the Great Highway were open.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jennifer Lam, 70, who has lived on 19th Avenue near Wawona Street since 2003, predicts that Sunset Boulevard will be slammed.<\/p>\n

\"A19th Avenue will likely see congestion during repaving work throughout the next year. | Source: Amanda Andrade-Rhoades\/The Standard<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people here were against the closure because they use the Great Highway to go to the Richmond, especially when 19th Avenue is busy,\u201d she said. \u201cNow, there\u2019s only one choice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lam said her daughter takes the 28 bus to her job as a dental assistant in the Richmond, and she worries traffic will slow the bus down, too.<\/p>\n

Listen toThe Standard Podcasts<\/p>\n

Pacific Standard Time4 days ago<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to have to give her more rides because it\u2019s going to be so slow,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Caltrans has been planning the repaving work for two years. The first phase will start at Sloat Boulevard and 19th Avenue. Crews will pave the northbound parking lane in half-block increments, moving north to Lincoln Way. Work will then repeat in the southbound parking lane.<\/p>\n

Phase Two, scheduled for the spring, will focus on repaving all three driving lanes in the same staggered northbound-then-southbound pattern. Beginning in the summer, crews will move south of Sloat to Holloway Avenue near San Francisco State University.\u00a0<\/p>\n

During the first phase, only one traffic lane will be closed, but during the second, two of three will be closed on blocks being repaved. The work will take place Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.<\/p>\n

Caltrans expects the project to be completed by December 2026.<\/p>\n

Linda Guitron, who lives near 19th Avenue and Vicente Street, said she has wanted her street repaved since moving there in 2000.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat street is like a washboard,\u201d she said. She believes the fix will be worth the painful disruption.<\/p>\n

\"AnLinda Guitron, who has lived on 19th Avenue for 25 years, says the thoroughfare badly needs to be repaved but that the road work will be inconvenient. | Source: Garrett Leahy\/The Standard<\/p>\n

Two years ago, Guitron, 83, endured a different major Caltrans overhaul to replace sewer and fiber-optic lines under 19th Avenue. Blocked driveways and lane closures made errands an ordeal and increased wait times for the 28 bus, which she rides to connect to the N-Judah and reach Golden Gate Park.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a ton of disruption,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was horrible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Caltrans said any bus stop relocations will happen during the project\u2019s second phase. The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency didn\u2019t confirm if stops for the 28 bus would need to be moved, or if buses would run more slowly but a representative said it will post notices if the construction requires changes.<\/p>\n

During peak hours, Caltrans is urging drivers to avoid the corridor altogether and detour onto Sunset Boulevard. The agency recommends taking Sloat Boulevard east to reconnect with the segment of 19th Avenue that won\u2019t be paved until June.<\/p>\n

Home-care worker Maha Paizova, 54, lives with a 100-year-old woman who has occupied a home at the corner of 36th Avenue and Sloat overlooking Sunset Boulevard for 50 years and said the detoured morning rush hour is going to make life more unpleasant for her client, who often sleeps during the day.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be more sound, noise, pollution,\u201d Paizova said. \u201cShe needs quiet living.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A19th Avenue is one of two major north-south routes for cars on the city\u2019s west side. | Source: Amanda Andrade-Rhoades\/The Standard<\/p>\n

Burton lives where Junipero Serra Boulevard intersects with Sloat, where traffic will be rerouted in both directions during the road work. She anticipates that morning rush hour and afternoon school pick-ups will clog her street. But she\u2019s most concerned for commuters: \u201cIt\u2019s going to affect anyone who has to go to work.\u201d Kwong estimates that the lane closures will add 10 minutes to her commute.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re in a rush to get to work, yeah, it matters,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Dec. 1, Caltrans will start repaving 19th Avenue \u2014 the CA Route 1 north\u2013south traffic artery on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":76760,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[3315,9386,101,103,102,104,106,105,27669,1967],"class_list":{"0":"post-76759","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco","8":"tag-caltrans","9":"tag-great-highway","10":"tag-san-francisco","11":"tag-san-francisco-headlines","12":"tag-san-francisco-news","13":"tag-sf","14":"tag-sf-headlines","15":"tag-sf-news","16":"tag-sunset-district","17":"tag-transportation"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76759"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76759\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}