A Digital Journal - San Francisco Public Works
In the Works
April 2025
In the shadow of an iconic San Francisco landmark, construction crews performed a crisply choreographed operation to repair and repave the windy road leading up to Coit Tower and fix up its visitor parking lot.
FEATURE STORIES
A Towering Achievement
In order to enhance accessibility to a cherished landmark, Public Works was tasked with repairing Coit Tower’s visitor parking lot and the street leading up to it.
City Opens a New Behavioral Health Center to Help People in Crisis
A new emergency hub for those in crisis aims to provide rapid access to life-saving services, alleviate suffering on the City’s streets and free up local hospital emergency rooms.
Potrero Gateway Project
Uplifts a Neighborhood
A community-driven vision to turn a patch of trash-strewn public land into a safer, more welcoming corridor near a freeway offramp in the Potrero Hill neighborhood came to life this month with the completion of a transformative streetscape project.
We Take A Lotta Pride in Upkeep of Historic Fountain
Public Works crews made their yearly pilgrimage to Lotta’s Fountain this month to make sure the San Francisco landmark was in tiptop shape for the City’s annual commemoration of the Great Earthquake and Fire of 1906.
Power to the People!
The City has made it a little easier for drivers to power up their electric vehicles with the installation of the first publicly available curbside chargers in San Francisco under a pilot program launched this month.
#LoveOurCity
We accomplished lots of great work at this month’s Love Our City: Neighborhood Beautification Day workday, which brought together volunteers and our in-house crews to green and clean the Richmond District.
Crews pour concrete during improvement work in the visitor parking lot for Coit Tower.
A Towering Achievement
Telegraph Hill is quintessential San Francisco – panoramic Bay views, lush urban parkland, breathtaking architecture and, yes, very steep hills. It’s no surprise, then, that this hill, with the iconic Coit Tower perched atop it, has become one of the City’s true treasures and most popular tourist destinations.
Coit Tower, a San Francisco icon, has been open to the public for more than 90 years.
But a steady stream of visitors also means lots of wear and tear on roads and parking spots. That’s why Public Works, the steward of San Francisco’s public right of way, was tasked with repairing the street leading to Coit Tower and the visitor parking lot to enhance accessibility to the cherished landmark.
After careful planning and coordination with the Recreation and Park Department, which has jurisdiction over Coit Tower and the surrounding parkland, Public Works made plans to perform these much-needed repairs in early 2025. The work was strategically timed to take place during the lull in tourism that was expected between NBA All-Star Weekend, which San Francisco hosted Feb. 14 – 16, and the time when most schools are on spring break.
Crews repave the windy road leading to and from Coit Tower.
There was a lot of work to squeeze into this roughly eight-week period, including fully repaving the pothole-pocked roadway on Telegraph Hill Boulevard between Kearny Street and Coit Tower; completely reconstructing the rutted Coit Tower parking lot; and constructing three new ADA-compliant curb ramps near the tower’s main entrance.
Though it’s always tough working in a densely populated city like San Francisco, Telegraph Hill poses a unique challenge.
A newly paved portion of the road to Coit Tower bakes in the sun.
Telegraph Hill Boulevard is the hill’s only road, and the only way to access Coit Tower by vehicle. It is a steep, windy and narrow two-lane roadway surrounded by dense foliage, leading to a heavily used parking lot, and serves Muni’s 39-Coit line that makes two or three runs an hour. To pull this off, the Public Works project team needed to get creative with its approach.
The primary goal was to keep as much of the parking lot and roadway open for residents, visitors, transit riders and others for as long as possible, while still allowing construction work to progress at an efficient and safe pace. To do this, we worked closely with the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency and Rec and Park, learning their operational needs and incorporating them into our plan. By breaking up the project into multiple, smaller phases, crews were able to complete the work while minimizing disruptions to the public.
The first phase encompassed construction of the curb ramps, just above the Greenwich Street stairway. Though the terrain elsewhere on this hillside can be difficult to traverse, these accessible, lightly sloped curb ramps facilitate easy access to the sidewalk and Coit Tower entryway. Once that work was completed, crews then turned their attention to the parking lot.
Crews pour concrete in the Coit Tower parking lot during a tightly choreographed operation.
Sitting atop Telegraph Hill is a small, circular parking lot made up of roughly 60 10-inch-thick concrete slabs that form a doughnut shape around a circular planter in the lot’s center. With one traffic lane running counterclockwise and enough space for 45 vehicles to park at a 45-degree angle, keeping this parking lot operational while reconstructing it required an intricately timed four-phase process.
First, crews demolished the existing concrete, re-graded the dirt below and poured new concrete in the section of the parking lot closest to the center planter. While crews worked in this area, enough space was maintained for vehicles, including buses, to drive along the outer ring of the parking lot to drop off visitors.
When it came time to reconstruct the outer portion of the parking lot, a temporary closure of the lot to all vehicle traffic was necessary due to the tight turns and construction activity.
Among the last pieces of this puzzle was the parking lot’s entryway. To maintain full access to the parking lot, our crews reconstructed the entryway one lane at a time, leaving the other lane open for vehicle access. Traffic control flaggers were on site to help vehicles safely navigate the lot.
Crews navigate the narrow road to Coit Tower during their repaving mission.
To cap off this project, we made critical street upgrades to Telegraph Hill Boulevard. Crews started by reconstructing the portions of the roadway that were in the worst shape. They jackhammered away the old, crumbling asphalt and aging concrete street base beneath. They then poured 8 inches of new concrete street base in key areas. Replacing the concrete street base gives the roadway a more stable, stronger foundation, allowing it to retain its shape and withstand repeated use for decades to come.
The refresh will make access to Coit Tower even easier and safer.
Finally, crews fully repaved the entire length of Telegraph Hill Boulevard, applying a new 2-inch layer of asphalt and creating a uniformly smooth roadway surface.
Since it opened to the public more than 90 years ago, Coit Tower has remained one of San Francisco’s most enduring symbols, drawing crowds from around the world while serving as a popular destination for locals. Now, with these recent infrastructure improvements, accessing this one-of-a-kind landmark will be even safer and easier.
Want to learn more about the paving process? Check out our latest episode of Public Works TV!
PUBLIC WORKS
BY THE NUM83R5
2025 -YEAR TO DATE
3,474
POTHOLES
FILLED
2,386
TREES
PRUNED
248
CURB RAMPS
CONSTRUCTED
111
NUMBER OF BLOCKS RESURFACED
4,317
TONS OF DEBRIS COLLECTED
Public Works staff gather during the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new Stabilization Unit.
City Opens a New Behavioral Health Center to Help People in Crisis Living on the Street
As San Francisco continues to bolster its resources for people in urgent need of behavioral health care, a new emergency hub for those in crisis aims to provide rapid access to life-saving services, alleviate suffering on the City’s streets and free up local hospital emergency rooms.
Located near the northern edge of the City’s Tenderloin neighborhood, the 24/7 stabilization center at 822 Geary St. – staffed by nurses, doctors, behavioral health specialists and case managers – will help stabilize clients in a safe environment and then support their next steps through dedicated care coordination. The facility began accepting clients on April 28.
The 6,400-square-foot center – which Public Works designed and delivered on behalf of the San Francisco Department of Public Health – offers first responders, street teams and members of law enforcement a safe and effective alternative to hospital emergency departments where they can bring people in crisis to connect them with services and treatment.
The new center opened its doors to clients on April 28.
“When we talk to people on the streets, and ask them to come inside, we need to bring them somewhere with the professionals and the resources to get them the help they need. That’s exactly what this 24/7 police-friendly stabilization center will be, and I am proud to be opening it,” said Mayor Daniel Lurie. “The city's approach to this crisis has not been working. We are charting a new path.”
Lurie sees the new center as an essential component of the City’s comprehensive strategy to improve street conditions and provide care for those in need. While long in the making, the project was expedited to meet the mayor’s desire to get the center up and running with a sense of urgency. The Public Works team successfully untangled last-minute problems to keep the opening not only on track but also ahead of schedule.
Construction on the project began at the end of February 2024 and was completed this month, culminating in a ribbon-cutting ceremony with City officials and community leaders. Public Works handled construction and project management, design and contracting, and facilitated permitting, disability access coordination and materials testing.
Mayor Daniel Lurie and City officials cut the ribbon for the new emergency hub.
Located in a repurposed grocery store, the space has been thoughtfully designed to be comfortable, welcoming and uplifting, said Public Works project architect Colin Mosher.
“It features abundant natural light, a mix of private and communal seating areas, and direct access to counselors and wellness practitioners,” he said. “To enhance the environment, the design team opened up the existing ceiling to expose the original wood trusses, creating a sense of warmth and openness. Skylights and carefully integrated lighting were added to bring a soft glow and visual interest to the space.”
The center is operated by Crestwood Behavioral Health Inc., which is a California-based mental health care provider with more than 29 campuses statewide. Crestwood also operates the San Francisco Healing Center, a mental health rehabilitation center located on the University of California San Francisco St. Mary's Hospital campus in the Haight-Ashbury.
The new crisis stabilization center is housed in a repurposed grocery store.
The facility serves people experiencing severe anxiety and panic attacks, depression and thoughts of suicide or self-harm, acute mental health emergencies, including agitation and restlessness, as well as health crises resulting from substance use or drug reactions. Many people who can now be treated at the Stabilization Unit are too often ending up in local emergency rooms, which are meant for medical emergencies.
The Department of Public Health and City partners worked closely with neighbors and community groups to make sure the Stabilization Unit won’t negatively impact the immediate neighborhood. This includes daily ambassadors within a four-block radius and overnight security, as well as close coordination with the San Francisco Police Department to provide additional police presence, as needed.
The center features rooms with beds for individual clients.
The site at the corner of Geary and Hyde streets was purchased in 2021 with approval from the Board of Supervisors with the intent of building a Stabilization Unit. In February 2024 the Board of Supervisors accepted about $6.7 million in state funding to support the construction of the facility, which cost about $11 million.
“The new Stabilization Unit provides real-time help for people living on the streets who are in a behavioral health crisis, offering them treatment and support in a safe environment,” said Public Works Director Carla Short. “It takes a coordinated effort – from political leadership and community partnerships to thoughtful program design and project delivery – to advance meaningful initiatives like this model of care.”
The Public Works team handled construction and project management, design and more.
Mayor Daniel Lurie, City officials and community members cut the ribbon for the new Potrero Gateway project.
Potrero Gateway Project
Uplifts a Neighborhood
Through Community Vision, Thoughtful Design
A community-driven vision to turn a patch of trash-strewn public land into a safer, more welcoming corridor near a freeway offramp in the Potrero Hill neighborhood came to life this month with the completion of a transformative streetscape project.
The Potrero Gateway project – led by Public Works, from design to implementation – helped create a safer passageway under the U.S. Highway 101 overpass on 17th Street, between San Bruno Avenue and Vermont Street, as well as the adjacent block of Vermont Street, between 17th Street and Mariposa Street.
Both stretches had been identified by the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency’s Vision Zero team as needing upgrades to make the area safer and more accessible for people who walk and bike.
The revamped streetscape features concrete dividers to protect bike lanes.
Crews widened sidewalks, built corner bulb-outs to shorten crossing distances, constructed concrete dividers to protect both eastbound and westbound bike lanes and installed new metal picket fencing along the area’s perimeter and new lighting to illuminate pedestrian pathways underneath the freeway. Landscaped elements complement the streetscape and safety improvements.
“From a landscape perspective, our goal was to create a beautiful, safe and memorable connection through the site,” said Janet Kiyoi, a Public Works landscape architect who worked on the project. “To achieve this, we designed serpentine planter walls that provide seating, used river cobble for soil stabilization, incorporated decorative fencing and selected native plants local to the area.”
Native plants were added to terraced gardens.
In partnership with the San Francisco Arts Commission, four new public art sculptures were installed on both sides of the overhead freeway – two at the corner of 17th Street and Vermont Street and another two at 17th Street and San Bruno Avenue.
The Public Works team was joined by Mayor Daniel Lurie, Supervisor Shamann Walton, City partners, neighbors and community advocates at a ribbon-cutting celebration in front of the sculptures on April 28.
“Projects like Potrero Gateway are vital to making San Francisco a safer and more pleasant place to live and travel through,” said Public Works Director Carla Short. “What the project might lack in size, it more than makes up for in impact. These key improvements aim to change how the community interacts with and perceives the area.”
This project was inspired by and built in collaboration with passionate members of the Potrero Hill and Dogpatch communities, who shared a desire to improve and beautify this previously neglected, litter-pocked space under the freeway overpass.
New public art sculptures now greet drivers, bikers and pedestrians passing through the area.
“We have been working for years to transform and activate this space that was neglected for too long,” said Jean Bogiages, a Potrero Hill resident and a passionate driving force behind the community’s push for the project. “The Potrero Gateway project shows … that the hard work has paid off. The neighborhood is better for it.”
The Potrero Gateway Park Steering Committee has been championing change and improvements in the area since 2012, working with the greater community and raising funds for the project. The Dogpatch and NW Potrero Hill Green Benefit District is also actively involved in the area, providing maintenance through an Adopt-a-Highway permit and partnering with Public Works on the continued upkeep of the space.
“The completion of the Potrero Gateway project is a testament to the perseverance and hard work of many community members, green space and street safety advocates, and our partners in the city and state governments,” said Donovan Lacy, acting executive director of the Dogpatch and NW Potrero Hill Green Benefit District. “It creates a gateway to the Potrero community.”
The community-supported nonprofit, which creates and cares for green infrastructure in the neighborhood, worked with the Public Works landscape team to select the Project Gateway plants and will maintain them.
Artists Jason Kelly Johnson and Nataly Gattegno of the art and design studio FUTUREFORMS created the new sculptures, titled “Metamorphosis,” that now greet drivers, bikers and pedestrians passing through the area. The sculptures consist of four stacked spherical forms. Grouped in two pairs, they emerge from the terraced gardens, transforming into intricate lattices as they grow toward the sky.
The spherical sculptures are a nod to a time when the area was home to a variety of sea creatures.
The uppermost forms evoke the microscopic cell structures of radiolaria and other organic sea forms that would have been found at this location as late as 1850. Prior to urbanization, the site was on the marshy shoreline of Mission Bay, which was teeming with mollusks and other sea creatures.
The Potrero Gateway project sits partially on California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) land. Caltrans provided critical support for the improvements with Clean California grant funding aimed at beautifying state-owned right of way near highways. Funding for the project also came from the San Francisco County Transportation Authority through its voter-approved Proposition AA Vehicle Registration Fee.
Every year in April, Public Works crews inspect and clean Lotta’s Fountain.
We Take A Lotta Pride in Upkeep of
Historic Fountain
Public Works crews made their yearly pilgrimage to Lotta’s Fountain this month to make sure the San Francisco landmark was in tiptop shape for the City’s annual commemoration of the Great Earthquake and Fire of 1906.
Every year on April 18, at 5:12 a.m. – the date and time the devastating earthquake struck – City officials and history buffs gather on a pedestrian island at the downtown intersection of Market, Geary and Kearny streets where Lotta’s Fountain sits.
And every year our crews make sure the historic cast-iron structure is spiffed up and in good working condition for the anniversary event. The team included a plumber, electrician, painter, locksmith and stationary engineer.
A Public Works team member makes sure the lantern atop the fountain is in good shape.
There was the lantern to fix atop the 8-foot-tall fountain, a vandalized lock to repair, nicks and scratches to buff out and paint over and water features to get running correctly.
We take a lot of pride in this maintenance operation, for Lotta’s Fountain plays an important role in San Francisco history. After the 1906 earthquake, it was the only source of water for the people of the area and the working horses pulling goods and trolleys down Market Street.
Making sure the fountain’s water features work is a top priority.
The monument also served as a meeting place for residents after the calamitous 7.9-magnitude earthquake shook the City, sparking a destructive fire that burned for days.
Today, Lotta’s Fountain – named after Lotta Crabtree, a theater star from the 1800s – stands as a symbol of San Francisco resiliency. And we’ll continue to do our part at Public Works to make sure the fountain and the message it represents endure.
The City has made it a little easier for drivers to power up their electric vehicles with the installation of the first publicly available curbside chargers in San Francisco under a pilot program launched this month.
Public Works, the San Francisco Environment Department and the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency teamed up with it’s electric, a company that partners with property owners to utilize their untapped electricity supply, to enable the installation of compact, user-friendly chargers without the need for extensive street work or direct utility connections. The company provides people with their own cable for their EV to plug into a curbside charger.
The pilot is starting with two Level 2 chargers that are located on Hermann Street, just west of Fillmore Street outside the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers’ headquarters. The pair of curbside chargers – anticipated to be the first of many – were installed by union electricians and represent an important step forward in expanding access to EV charging infrastructure.
Public Works facilitated the permitting process to allow installation of the EV charger infrastructure in the public right of way.
Supervisor Rafael Mandelman and City officials cut the ribbon for the new curbside charging station.
“This collaborative initiative demonstrates San Francisco’s continued commitment to advance environmental sustainability,” said Public Works Director Carla Short.
The expansion of EV charging at the curb opens a new frontier of potential for convenient, publicly accessible charging, which will help the City reach its goal of 1,760 publicly available EV chargers by 2030. Today, the City has 1,152 publicly accessible charging ports, an increase of 470% since 2019.
As the newest option, curbside charging joins other established pathways, such as EV chargers in private garages and public lots, to deliver convenient charging solutions to residents, visitors and businesses.
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A street sign marks the new public EV chargers.
Through partnerships with cities, it’s electric manages the installation, operation and maintenance of chargers at no cost to municipalities or building owners, aiming to seamlessly integrate into the urban landscape while providing a convenient charging option for EV owners.
The new chargers dispense 7.6 kW, adding about 25 miles of range per hour, and are open to the public. Building owners and drivers who want to see a charger on their block can join it’s electric’s waitlist.
For more information on the City’s Curbside EV Charging Pilot Program, please visit sfgov.org/ev-curbside
An electric vehicle charges up at San Francisco’s new curbside station on Hermann Street.
Power to the People!
Volunteers spruce up some landscaping in the Richmond District.
#LoveOurCity
We accomplished lots of great work at this month’s Love Our City: Neighborhood Beautification Day workday, which brought together volunteers and our in-house crews to green and clean the Richmond District.
From weeding the schoolyard garden at Alamo Elementary School and sprucing up the colorful sidewalk gardens on Balboa Street to planting new street trees on 20th Avenue and performing landscape maintenance work on an Anza Street traffic circle, the Richmond got some welcome TLC.
District Supervisor Connie Chan joined us at the April 5 event that drew dozens of community volunteers.
Public Works hosts Neighborhood Beautification Day events once a month, rotating through the City’s 11 supervisorial districts.
Neighborhood Beautification Day volunteer events are fun for the whole family.
Next month, on Saturday, May 10, we’ll be in District 10’s Bayview-Hunters Point, planting 75 young street trees! That’s an ambitious undertaking and we are looking for folks to help out. Bring your family, friends and neighbors, or show up solo to make new connections. These community events are fun, meaningful and inspiring.
The day will kick off at 8:30 a.m. at Bayview K.C. Jones Playground at Third Street and Armstrong Avenue.
Interested in pitching in? Sign up here: D10 Neighborhood Beautification Day (Bayview / Dogpatch) · SF Public Works
