A Digital Journal - San Francisco Public Works
In the Works
January 2023
When most people took cover as the rain came down hard and the howling winds picked up, the Public Works team headed outside during San Francisco’s recent cavalcade of storms, dealing with the hazards at full throttle to keep the City safe.
FEATURE STORIES
Our arborist crews hustle to clear a black acacia tree blocking Market Street in the Castro on the night of Jan. 4.
Storm Response!
Over the past month, San Francisco recorded nearly 18 inches of rain – making it one of the wettest stretches in the City’s recorded history. The storms packed a punch, uprooting trees, clogging drains, supercharging mudslides and keeping our frontline staff extremely busy and working around the clock.
From Dec. 27, 2022, through Jan. 18, 2023, Public Works collectively responded to 3,027 storm-related service orders – everything from trees down on power lines to flooded intersections and rockslides.
A tree crew at work on Hayes Street on Jan. 10, chipping a fallen tree after high winds and pounding rain knocked off large limbs, causing too much damage for the tree to survive.
The urgent response and cleanup operations have been immense, with Public Works coordinating closely with other City departments. Among them San Francisco Emergency Management, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, Fire, Police, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, SF311, the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing and more.
Public Works employees on special assignment staff the Department Operations Center to track and triage storm-related service requests.
1,665
tree incidents
Public Works Bureau of Urban Forestry tree crews were front and center throughout, with 1,665 storm-related service orders put into the queue during the storms. Of those, 848 were related to fallen trees, large branches or limbs threatening property, blocking roads or falling on overhead power lines.
The failure of this black acacia tree forces the temporary closure of Hayes Street while crews clean up the mess.
Rounding out the service requests for our tree crews were urgent requests to trim and prune trees during the storm to keep them from failing.
Downing a damaged tree takes skill and experience to ensure the remaining limbs and trunk come down safely.
Our arborists worked in heavy rains and howling winds – wielding chainsaws, handsaws and axes, at times 30 feet or more above the ground in bucket trucks. Some jobs took many hours to complete – with the priority on potential hazards to property and people. In some instances, crews simply moved downed trees and branches off to the side in a safe location to deal with later when the pressing calls slowed.
852
catch basins and flooded intersections cleared
A street cleaner sweeps up fallen leaves to keep a storm drain clear.
Coordinating with the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, our street cleaning staff went full throttle clearing catch basins of leaves and debris to address flooding at intersections. Public Works crews clear the catch basins at the surface; the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, which runs the system, is responsible for clearing the drains below ground, using specialized equipment such as vacuum trucks.
During the recent deluges, 942 service orders related to flooding and blocked catch basins came through the Public Works dispatch center, known as the Radio Room. Of those, we cleared 852 – or more than 90%. The remainder were sent to the Public Utilities Commission for more intensive work underground.
Despite the continuous hustle, there are times when the stormwater system maxes out on capacity and flooding occurs, which is what San Francisco experienced on New Year’s Eve.
There is no urban system in the United States built to capture the amount of stormwater sloshing through the streets that day. The Public Utilities Commission is working with affected residents, businesses and property owners in the wake of the storms.
31,397
sandbags distributed
To help minimize flooding of properties, the City distributes sandbags to San Francisco residents and businesses free of charge. The Public Utilities Commission drops off pallets of sandbags at areas prone to flooding, such as Folsom and 17th streets, prior to the start of the rainy season. Public Works, meanwhile, makes sandbags available to any San Francisco resident or business at our Operations Yard in the Bayview.
The demand for sandbags surged during the storms, with more than 31,000 handed out at the Public Works Operations Yard.
Our staff handed out a jaw-dropping 31,397 sandbags during the storms. Normally, we provide up to 10 free sandbags per address, but we had to limit the number to five for a couple of days, and even then, we ran short for brief periods until the stock could be replenished.
The unrelenting rain didn’t deter our crews during the sandbag operation.
San Francisco, like cities and counties across the rain-soaked region, saw a huge surge in demand that outpaced the readily available supply. Our finance team worked throughout the New Year’s holiday and the weeks that followed to source more sandbags – competing with other jurisdictions. We found vendors as far away as Stockton and Tracy who had some to sell.
The sandbag distribution team got some well-deserved media attention.
In the end, we procured 37,984 filled sandbags and now have more than 15,000 available, almost double the number we typically have on hand.
828
potholes patched
Our crews also got to work patching potholes. Hundreds of them!
A Public Works street repair team fills potholes along Market Street in the downtown corridor.
You may wonder why potholes emerge in the rain. The science is pretty straightforward: When water seeps underneath the pavement through a crack in the asphalt or concrete, the subsurface can start to erode. To make matters worse, when vehicles, particularly heavy trucks and buses, pass over the compromised area, the roadway can break down even more, creating a pothole.
Our street repair crews patched 828 potholes, which they got to quickly, using both cold and hot patches to smooth out the divots and remove immediate hazards.
Consider that we average just over 600 pothole repairs a month.
The storms kept our Public Works trades workers busy, too. Our roofers, plumbers, glaziers, electricians, carpenters, sheet metal workers and painters jumped into action, fixing City buildings affected by the unrelenting wind and rain. There were 61 service orders for everything from leaky roofs to overflowing drains.
29
rockslides and mudslides
Public Works also has been dealing with 29 rockslides and mudslides. Our engineers assess the damage, recommend short-term safety measures, such as shutting down a street or placing k-rails at the site to catch falling rocks, and start working on longer-term fixes if they’re warranted. Our street repair and street cleaning crews also are brought in to clear rocks, place sandbags, set up barricades, flush down the streets and the like. It truly is a team effort.
Public Works’ chief structural engineer, Ray Lui, (foreground), and City Engineer Albert Ko assess the Corona Heights hillside after a rockslide.
Our team dealt with a major incident over the Jan. 21 weekend, with the discovery of a very large, potentially hazardous, cracked boulder above the Randall Museum in Corona Heights. The rock needed to be knocked down carefully in a planned operation by a specialty contractor we called in so it wouldn’t come crashing down on its own, potentially causing damage, injury or worse.
Other slides in the City are located on the Great Highway, between Sloat and Skyline boulevards; Twin Peaks at Burnett Avenue; John Muir Drive near Lake Merced; and Geneva Avenue near McLaren Park, among others.
A section of the base holding up the Great Highway, between Sloat and Skyline boulevards, washed away, jeopardizing the integrity of a portion of the roadway.
Our street repair crews, using earth-moving trucks, race to shore up the coastal landslide to prevent even more damage to the Great Highway.
service requests for
our building trades teams
61
In addition to the frontline staff, there’s a lot of work going on behind the scenes, figuring out staffing schedules, triaging service requests, making sure the on-the-ground crews have the gear and tools they need to stay safe, keeping track of costs for potential reimbursement from the state, coordinating the response with the Mayor’s Office and other City departments and keeping the community up to date with the latest information.
Chris McDaniels, superintendent of the Bureau of Street Environmental Services, goes over his daily storm-response staffing plan for the street cleaning crews.
Our storm-response efforts involved hundreds of Public Works employees, many working extended shifts amid drenching cloudbursts, menacing winds and frigid temperatures. It’s what we do, who we are, and we’re ready to go when the next atmospheric river rolls through.
The newly installed rain gardens at the Southeast Community Center successfully harness the water, just as planned.
Rain, Rain, Come This Way!
The soggy start to the new year has been keeping our frontline crews occupied night and day, tending to fallen trees, clogged drains and hazardous rockslides. It has also put our green infrastructure in San Francisco to work.
At the newly-built Southeast Community Center – where we led the design, construction management and greenspace creation – stormwater runoff fed the extensive rain gardens on the sprawling 4 ½ acre campus at 1550 Evans Ave. in the Bayview. We built the new facility, which opened its doors to the community in October, for the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission.
The rain gardens catch 100% of the rainwater that falls on the roof of the three-story building. The purpose is to slow down the water from entering the combined sewer system to keep it from overflowing and flooding the streets. The gardens also provide habitat and public open space.
Carefully designed landscaping directs water into the gardens and away from the storm drain system.
The amount of runoff from the site was 45% below what it would have been before the project converted a former office site, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
“San Francisco is having historic rainfalls but when you plan ahead it can be a beautiful thing,” said Jennifer Cooper, Bureau of Landscape Architecture Manager at Public Works. “All of our landscapes need to build in this kind of capacity for the extremes that are here already and will come in future. Great to see the Southeast Community Center in action.”
The community center’s gardens absorb 100% of the water that falls on the roof.
Power washing wipes away grime on the dragon gate at Bush and Grant streets.
Chinatown Shines
for the Lunar New Year
San Francisco Public Works teams hopped into action to ready Chinatown for the Lunar New Year, scrubbing down streets, filling potholes and sprucing up the iconic dragon lamp posts and decorative gateway so the historic neighborhood can welcome locals and visitors celebrating the Year of the Rabbit.
The 2023 Lunar New Year celebrations began Jan. 22 and will be observed through Feb. 5 with family gatherings and civic festivities. Chinatown is at the center of the activities in San Francisco.
It is Chinese tradition for celebrants to clean up their homes, shops and surrounding communities prior to the Lunar New Year to capture the “out-with-the-old, in-with-the-new” holiday spirit. And San Francisco Public Works is proud of our role helping Chinatown get ready to hop into the new year!
Our crews ring in the Lunar New Year with a deep cleaning in Chinatown.
Street cleaning crews power washed the Chinatown Dragon Gate at Grant Avenue and Bush Street, and deep cleaned the sidewalk along Stockton Street and other major corridors and alleyways that burst with holiday activity. Skilled craftworkers from our Paint Shop touched up the Dragon Gate and the colorful dragon lamp posts along Grant Avenue between Bush Street and Broadway.
Our pro painters freshen up the dragon lamp posts along Grant Avenue.
In addition, our street repair crews conducted a pothole-repair blitz throughout the neighborhood and along the upcoming Chinese New Year Parade route to provide smooth and safe travel.
At the same time, our manual sweeping team and corridor ambassadors were constantly sweeping up litter and picking up trash, while our graffiti crews diligently abated tags from street fixtures. The department’s special projects team scrubbed the Broadway Tunnel, making the experience more pleasant for people driving, walking or biking through it.
A specialized truck scrubs down the Broadway Tunnel (left), while a street cleaner power washes a Chinatown street.
San Francisco’s Chinatown is the oldest one in North America and one of the largest of its kind outside of Asia. It is also one of the most densely populated neighborhoods in the United States. We are honored to help Chinatown shine.
We’ll be back out in full force again on Feb. 4 to clean up after the hundreds of thousands of revelers who attend the Chinese New Year Parade.
Volunteers clear brush and fallen branches along Brotherhood Way.
New Neighborhood Beautification Day Season Kicks Off with 100+ Volunteers
It was a warm and friendly gathering – despite the dense fog – at the front plaza of Balboa High School in the Mission Terrace neighborhood. Together with more than 100 volunteers, Public Works kicked off the 2023 season of the monthly Love Our City: Neighborhood Beautification greening and cleaning workdays.
The Jan. 28 volunteer event, held this month in District 11, brought out a diverse group – sleepy teenagers, parents with young kids, neighbors, off-duty Public Works employees, the chair of the department’s Sanitation and Streets Commission and community groups. They worked alongside our Bureau of Urban Forestry and street cleaning crews to spruce up and beautify Mission Terrace, the Excelsior and Ocean View neighborhoods.
Community leaders and District 11 Supervisor Ahsha Safai, who represents the area, got the day started with a brief pep rally to rev up the crowd for a morning of work.
Our Bureau of Urban Forestry crews work with volunteers to plant young trees on Rae Avenue.
Teams then headed out to seven sites to plant trees near Balboa High School and remove green waste along Brotherhood Way, as well as mulch tree basins and medians, pick up litter and paint out graffiti in the neighborhoods.
Each month, we bring the Neighborhood Beautification Day event to a different supervisorial district. While Public Works has a long history of large-scale volunteer operations, we put the monthly initiative on hold during the COVID-19 shutdowns before starting them up again last year, holding eight events that attracted nearly 900 participants. Our Community Engagement Team oversees the operation.
Besides helping to provide a cosmetic boost to the City’s neighborhoods, Neighborhood Beautification Days also bring together San Francisco’s rich tapestry of communities. Getting out and volunteering is a great way to meet new people and flex civic pride. The work can be hard but also packed with fun, and we can always find the right job for people of all ages, experience levels and physical capabilities.
Next month, we’ll be in the Mission, Bernal Heights and Portola neighborhoods in District 9. We hope you can join us! Sign up here.
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The partnering awards ceremony brings together City staffers and contractors to fete exceptional projects.
PARTNERING AWARDS
This month, Public Works hosted the 5th-annual Collaborative Partnering Awards ceremony, which recognized 10 City and County of San Francisco building and infrastructure projects that best exemplify the principles and success of structured collaborative partnering.
The partnering process brings together owners, designers and construction teams throughout the life of a project to maximize timeliness, economic efficiency and quality. Projects were judged by a panel of seven City and industry professionals.
Awards were given to projects affiliated with five City agencies: San Francisco Public Works, San Francisco International Airport, San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, San Francisco Public Utilities Commission and Recreation and Park Department. The projects touched on a variety of publicly funded improvements, among them a new crime lab, a swimming pool renovation, a sewer rehabilitation and upgrades to streetcar boarding islands.
Interim Public Works Director Carla Short presents a partnering award to the Public Works team that worked
on the City’s new Traffic Company and Forensic Services Division facility project.
The partnering recognition event took place on Jan. 27 at the City’s 49 South Van Ness Ave. office building.
Congratulations to the winners!
Winners
UNDER $20 MILLION: INFRASTRUCTURE
Bay View KC Jones Playground Renovation Project
San Francisco Recreation & Parks
Ground Based Augmentation System (GBAS) Program
SFO
Force Main Rehabilitation at Embarcadero & Jackson Project
SFPUC
Victoria Manalo Draves Lighting and Park Improvement Project
San Francisco Recreation & Parks
Mission Brick Sewer Rehabilitation Project
SFPUC
Southeast Water Pollution Control Plan 042 - Seismic Retrofit & Rehabilitation Project
SFPUC
UNDER $20 MILLION: BUILDINGS
Angelo J. Rossi Pool Renovation Project
San Francisco Recreation & Parks
OVER $20 MILLION: INFRASTRUCTURE
L Taraval Segment A Project
SFMTA
OVER $20 MILLION: BUILDINGS
Traffic Company and Forensic Services Division Facility Project
San Francisco Public Works
Courtyard 3 Connector Project
SFO