Open Roads
Keep the Great Highway a Highway
• • • • • • • August 2024 • • • • • • •
Because of their unique characteristics, two sections of the Great Highway should be considered separately when permanent closure is contemplated. One section is from Lincoln Way to Sloat Blvd. (Northern Section), and the other is from Sloat Blvd. to Skyline Blvd. (Southern Section).
The Southern Section of the Great Highway has been ignored year after year. As more erosion occurs, inaction will destroy this section. Is this neglect a calculated ploy designed to render it unsafe and ensure its conversion into a park is inevitable? If this section is ignored through another rainy season, it is likely to end up in the Pacific Ocean.
Is the Ordinance to put the Great Highway closure on the ballot an attempt to circumvent the will of the district and make this into a City-wide issue? This is an unfair democratic process.
COASTAL COMMISSION JURISDICTION
The jurisdiction of the Coastal Commission includes a great deal of the Great Highway. The coastal zone generally covers 1,000 yards from the mean high tide line. However, the Coastal Commission seems unaware of the problems here. If they were, they would require the repair of the Great Highway.
DETERIORATION OF THE GREAT HIGHWAY
These photos above were taken next to the first image of a steep cliff. All of this is beside the Oceanside Water Pollution Control Plant, where you would expect the SFPUC to be aware of the problems. However, the deterioration of this site is routinely ignored. Instead, this area is slated to become a park and part of the SF Parks and Recreation Department.
The pictures show a broken pipe causing erosion. Also, either surface or subsurface water is seeping from underneath the road. Yet, the City agencies are not acting expeditiously to resolve this problem. Instead, they blame sea rise and CLIMATE CHANGE for closing the highway. All this is a great disappointment because repairing a faulty pipe and adding drainage is much easier to fix than correcting CLIMATE CHANGE.
Of course, there is erosion occurring at the base of the cliff also. Eventually, this will cause catastrophic failure of the cliff in the future. However, for now, erosion along the road is a paramount issue.
OCEANSIDE WATER POLLUTION CONTROL PLANT
The Oceanside Water Pollution Control Plant is just to the left of the historical drawing showing a stream flowing into the Pacific Ocean. This indicates the soils near the sewage plant are organic and sedimentary. Therefore, this was an inappropriate choice for location of a sewage plant. Eventually, we recommend a new location for the sewage plant.
Historic drawing of Lake Merced in 1876
SOUTHERN GREAT HIGHWAY BEACH ACCESS
Among the amenities of the impending park at the Great Highway is a solution in discussion is to create a parking lot on the bluff above the Sewage Plant beside the coast with a trail to the Great Highway Park. One parking lot is likely to be sufficient. A second parking lot is contemplated at the end of Zoo Road. The current plan is to build a stairway to the beach for public access. That plan may bring the public too close to the threatened Bank Swallow bird habitat. Additionally, a stairway is not an appropriate environmental access to the beach.
An acceptable compromise, the Great Highway could be used for pedestrians, bicyclists, and skateboards on the weekends if the closure of the Great Highway to automobile traffic could begin at 8 pm on Friday evenings, allowing commuters to travel unimpeded to their homes.”
ENVIRONMENTAL BEACH ACCESS
A report from the San Francisco Estuary Institute (SFEI) describes the appropriate dune management for Ocean Beach.
Native grasses and other native vegetation should be planted where sections of the beach are broad and wide. Driftwood and brush matting can be used to define paths that guide hikers and prevent trampling on vegetation. This would also preserve the sand on the beach.
Currently, vegetation loss is due to pedestrians going to the beach and primarily occurs at signaled pedestrian crossings. This loss of vegetation can lead to the erosion of fixed dunes, which become mobile dunes, allowing sand to migrate toward the Great Highway. Also, this sand ends up in the homes and sewer systems in the district. Sand stabilization is a remedy that is very important to the general public.
THREATENED BIRD SPECIES
Two endangered bird species, the Snowy Plover and the Bank Swallow must be protected. A stairway to the beach next to the steep cliffs, could frighten or reduce habitat for the Bank Swallow nesting on its bluffs. The Snowy Plover nests on back beaches when beaches are narrow. Dogs and casual walkers threaten this species. Since dogs on a leash are allowed on the north portion of the beach beside the Cliff House, care must be taken to avoid dogs near the Snowy Plover habitat — from Beach Chalet Soccer Field to Sloat Blvd. These birds nest for about ten months out of the year, from July to May. Therefore, an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) is necessary to explore the effects to the Snowy Plover due to the Great Highway closure.
THE NORTHERN SECTION OF THE GREAT HIGHWAY
Adding more highway users with bikes, skateboards, skates and pedestrians from Lincoln Way to Sloat Blvd. would jeopardize the Snowy Plover habitat. It would cause increased damage to the sand dunes with wider access, damaging the scarce grasses. The Snowy Plover is a threatened species because of human disturbances due to development, recreation, and other human pressures.
Again, the desirable solution to keep sand in place is to provide California native grasses and shrubs, driftwood and brush matting to establish pathways
HOW THE GREAT HIGHWAY IS USED TODAY
Today, most pedestrian traffic enters the beach from designated crosswalks, limiting the destruction to the sand dues. When the Great Highway is exposed to larger crowds, it imperils the beach dunes and adds more sand to the highway, not less, and now this increased sand will need to be removed. Sand is not a friend of bikes, skateboards, or roller skates either. Therefore, this report recommends against closing the northern section of the Great Highway.
ANTICIPATED SERVICES NECESSARY
Other issues encompassing the Great Highway closure include funding, maintenance, and security. San Francisco is in a budget shortfall. Why plan all these changes when money is scarce and when there is an impending change of Supervisors to oversee the implementation? Today, the police do not monitor the Great Highway when it is closed to traffic, with only those on foot, bikes, skateboards, or skates. Residents complain that bicyclists often act entitled and rudely to others who use the same space. When will we consider the need for more policing and increased maintenance as more sand moves to the highway?
PILOT PROJECT
The Pilot Project temporarily closing the Great Highway lacked sufficient detail. Without police presence or trash pickup from increased pedestrian traffic, the Pilot Project was incomplete. Advocates who wish to close the Great Highway envision a park, but isn't the beach already a park?
Supporters of a park at the Great Highway also have a park nearby at the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Parts of Golden Gate Park are also closed to automobile traffic. Understandably, many think those waging the "war against cars" are overly greedy.
SFMTA STATISTICS
The SFMTA has claimed there are as many as 10,000 visitors to the Great Highway on a weekend. Residents who live there question these inflated numbers and ask for a reliable study from an outside data collection agency to verify those attendance claims. The SFMTA, which seems to favor the goals and aspirations of the Bicycle Coalition, has improperly designed or claimed statistics in the past, statistics that have not been accurate. The SFMTA has lost the trust of the public.
RIP CURRENTS
Rib currents occur when shallow sections of the sand bar meet deeper holes or trenches. The broken waves rush into the deeper holes, creating a mini-river-like current that moves laterally along the beach until it swings back out to the open ocean. The safest way for a distressed swimmer to exit is to swim with the current diagonally, back toward the beach, or swim with the current straight toward broken waves (whitewater), which will push the swimmer back to the beach. If you are in trouble swimming in a rip current, trying to stand up and walk to shore is important. Many deaths could have been avoided this way.
Rip currents move sand out to the ocean and prevent sand build-up on the beach.
UNDERSTANDING THE SEWAGE PLANT
Due to gravity, effluent from the southern part of San Francisco travels past the existing sewage plant and arrives at the Westside Pump Station (see image above). From there, the effluent is pumped to the Oceanside Water Pollution Control Plant. The treated effluent is then pumped 4.5 miles and released into the Pacific Ocean.
WESTSIDE TRANSPORTATION BOX AND DECANTING BOX
The effluent coming from the northwestern part of the City travels in the Westside Transport Box and the Decanting Box side by side. The location of the Decanting Station is in the upper corner of the Sewer Piping diagram. This Decanting Station releases primarily treated sewage. When it rains, the sewage plant becomes overloaded and cannot process all the effluent or raw sewage. The Decanting Station allows the effluent solids to be separated and retained while allowing the primarily treated sewage to be released into the ocean. A lawsuit is currently in the courts to resolve the problem of primary sewage released into the ocean and bay.
Lake Merced Tunnel 14 feet in diameter
FENCE AS PROTECTION
Some neighbors believe a fence could protect the native planting required to stabilize the dunes from movement and protect the Snowy Plover habitat. This ignores the fact that a fence originally protected the European grasses that had been planted there. That fence was very successful, and the grasses flourished. Eventually, sand accumulated around the fence. The morning dew, rich in salt water, caused the fence to deteriorate. Unfortunately, the fence was not replaced.
LET’S KEEP THE HIGHWAY
Closure of the Northern Section of the Great Highway is not recommended because the City could easily convert the adjacent area into a recreational opportunity.
While the center median is 12'0" wide the space to the east of the Great Highway, including the asphalt walkway, is 40'0" wide. Forty feet is nearly the width of the recreational space proposed for the closure of the Great Highway. The question arises: why close the Great Highway when another option is available? In addition, the new recreational space could have a par course providing even more opportunities for healthy recreation. It would no longer be necessary to drive by car to Lake Merced if there were a par course at the Great Highway.
In addition, the Northern Section of the Great Highway should not be closed to minimize public intrusion into the Snowy Plover habitat. Public access to the beach thru the dunes and Snowy Plover habitat would increase dramatically, negatively impacting both. Presently, most of the public access comes from the lower Great Highway at the intersections, e.g. Judah, Noriega, or Taraval Streets. Should the Great Highway be open everywhere, access to the beach would be from all directions, damaging the dunes even further.
The Southern Section of the Great Highway does not need to be replaced with a park at this time if the leaking pipe is properly repaired and if surface and subsurface drainage is managed properly. Because the Oceanside Water Pollution Control Plant was originally located in a vulnerable location beside a historic stream, a new location must be found.
The northern section of the Great Highway should remain open to automobiles. Beach access should be unrestricted to an unlimited number of beach enthusiasts, but only where there are crosswalks.
An acceptable compromise, the Great Highway could be used for pedestrians, bicyclists, and skateboards on the weekends if the closure of the Great Highway to automobile traffic could begin at 8 pm on Friday evenings, allowing commuters to travel unimpeded to their homes.
Glenn Rogers, RLA
Landscape Architect, LA 3223
President, Coalition for San Francisco Neighborhoods
August 2024
