* * FEBRUARY 2025 UPDATE * *
LAMMPS 2 & 3 BEING DESIGNED AND CONSTRUCTED TOGETHER
In 2023, the City had secured funding to fully design both LAMMPS 2 and LAMMPS 3, but it had not identified construction funding. In August 2024, the Projects were awarded $8.7 million in construction funding from the State's Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities (AHSC) Program. While this award doesn't fully fund construction of the LAMMPS Projects, it forms a base of funding that will allow the City to find additional funding to make up the gap.
While the AHSC award moved the LAMMPS Projects closer to implementation, it also committed the City to delivering the two projects together. At the time of this award, OakDOT had completed 35% design plans for Seminary Avenue (LAMMPS 3) and was in the process of bringing on a design consultant to work on detailed designs for LAMMPS 2 on MacArthur Boulevard. Now that the two projects are being built together, the most efficient and successful path forward is to have the same design consultant complete designs for both of the projects together, essentially making them one project. This will ensure the project components align and are constructed as seamlessly as possible.
OakDOT expects to release an RFP for the full design of the combined LAMMPS 2 & 3 Projects in early 2025. Outreach for the MacArthur Boulevard portion will likely resume in early 2026, with construction in 2028 and 2029.
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PROJECT DESCRIPTION
The LAMMPS Phase 3 Project will continue the work of connecting East Oakland to Downtown Oakland by connecting Seminary Avenue to the Laurel Access to Mills, Maxwell Park, and Seminary (LAMMPS) Phase 1 and Phase 2 projects, located along MacArthur Boulevard.
The main goals of LAMMPS Phase 3 are to slow traffic, close a gap in the City's bike network, close gaps in the Seminary Avenue sidewalk network, and improve pedestrian safety. The project will include a Class I off-street walking and biking path. This path will connect to the LAMMPS 2 path that will end at MacArthur and Seminary and, by extension, the LAMMPS 1 pathway that exists north of Richards Road on MacArthur. Other improvements to Seminary will include a northbound road diet, three new signalized crossings (pedestrian hybrid beacons), new pedestrian refuge islands, a major redesign to calm traffic at the MacArthur Boulevard intersection, and the construction of new sidewalk segments where gaps currently exist. Once the LAMMPS 2 and 3 project phases are complete, a 1.7 mile off-street recreational path will connect residents in Millsmont, Mills Garden, Frick, and Maxwell Park with the Northeastern campus and the Laurel District. We are very excited to bring this world-class infrastructure to our East Oakland neighborhoods.
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DESIGN WORK - 35% Design Plans Available
In Summer 2024, the LAMMPS Phase 3 Designs reached the 35% phase. In late 2024, the LAMMPS 2 and LAMMPS 3 Projects were combined. Final design work on LAMMPS 3 will resume when a design consultant is brought on board for the combined LAMMPS 2 and 3 Projects.
5/1/2024 - OakDOT implemented RAPID RESPONSE improvements at Seminary and Outlook in response to the 9/26/23 Fatal Crash. See photos below.
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PROJECT BACKGROUND
LAMMPS Phase 3 originally began as the Seminary Avenue Paving Project in 2023, which proposed improvements along Seminary Avenue from Foothill Blvd to Sunnymere Blvd as part of the City's planned repaving of Seminary in 2025. During outreach for the paving project, it became clear that residents favored a Class I off-street walking and biking path on Seminary Avenue from Camden St to Sunnymere Blvd. This design was more intensive than what a paving project can deliver, so the Seminary Avenue Paving Project was split into two parts in late 2023:
- LAMMPS Phase 3: Seminary Avenue, from Camden St to Sunnymere Blvd
- Seminary Avenue Paving Project: Seminary Avenue, from Foothill Blvd to Camden St
Seminary Avenue Paving Project (Foothill to Camden): The lower portion of the original Seminary Avenue Paving Project, from Foothill Boulevard to Camden Street, will still be repaved and receive safety improvements. OakDOT's Paving team will lead this repaving work, scheduled to occur in 2026. Based on feedback from residents during the 2023 outreach, the project will include safety features like new marked crossings, flashing crossing lights, speed cushions, potentially traffic circles, and other traffic calming measures.
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FUNDING
August 2024: The Oakland Department of Transportation secured $8.7 million in construction funding for LAMMPS Phase 2 and Phase 3 from the State's Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities (AHSC) Program, as part of the $45 million award to the Residences at Liberation Park, an affordable housing project in East Oakland. By building safe and accessible connections on MacArthur Boulevard and Seminary Avenue, the LAMMPS Projects will connect the areas to the east -- including the Residences at Liberation Park, the adjacent Eastmont Town Center, and surrounding neighborhoods in East Oakland -- to essential services, major employment centers, and other destinations, including Northeastern University, the Laurel Commercial District, and Downtown Oakland. The City is pursuing additional funding to cover the full construction costs of the LAMMPS Phase 2 and 3 Projects.
Summer 2024 - OakDOT applied for construction funding from the Federal Safe Streets for All Program. Unfortunately, the project was not awarded funding.
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OUTREACH
Updates are regularly sent to the project email list. Sign up here.
Late 2024 - OakDOT published 35% conceptual designs for the full project corridor.
Early 2024 - OakDOT published 15% conceptual designs for the full project corridor.
2024 Outreach
- Thursday, April 25, 2024: Mills Garden Neighborhood Meeting, 6:00pm-7:30pm, virtual
- Wednesday, March 27, 2024: 29X Millsmont Neighborhood Council Meeting, 6:30pm-8:00pm, virtual
- Wednesday, March 13, 2024: 28X Maxwell Park Neighborhood Council Meeting, 7:00pm-8:30pm, virtual
- Thurs, March 7, 2024: Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Commission - Infrastructure Committee, 3:30pm-5:00pm, 250 Frank Ogawa Plaza, 4th Floor
Summer 2023 - Bike Survey
the project team sent out a widely distributed survey (now closed) about what sort of bike connection to build between Camden Avenue and Sunnymere Boulevard. Survey results showed that 85% of residents in the surrounding area favored a Class 1 off-street walking and biking path, as opposed to a protected on-street bike lane.
Spring 2023
OakDOT staff began in-person and virtual outreach in Spring 2023 for the Seminary Avenue Paving Project (Sunnymere to Foothill) to learn what residents, business owners, and other stakeholders would like to see improved on Seminary Avenue.
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For more information, contact Cathy DeLuca, Transportation Planner.
