BART Silicon Valley Berryessa Extension

The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority extended the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) light rail commuter system south from Fremont to San Jose. The Berryessa Extension was the 10-mile, two-station first phase of that extension, called BART Silicon Valley. The project’s alignment proceeded from the planned Warm Springs BART Station in Fremont on the former Union Pacific Railroad (UPRR) right-of-way and ended near Las Plumas Avenue in the City of San Jose.

Since the project crossed through three cities and many densely populated areas, the alignment included at-grade, trench, and aerial cross-sections. The project required extensive coordination with the cities, utilities, and UPRR.

The Milpitas station has a below grade boarding platform while the Berryessa Station is an elevated aerial boarding platform. Both stations connect to nearby highways, existing bus transit, as well as VTA’s light rail system.  The systems component included:  6 traction power substations, two high voltage substation, an Automatic Train Control system, and a communication system.

The team has utilized several innovative solutions to help reduce the construction duration, environmental impact, and community impact. These innovations included the following:

• ACI 350 and sheet piles used to eliminate the use of waterproofing and CDSM, resulting in reduced construction durations and reduced environmental impact from waste during CDSM operations.
• The use of Hydraulic press sheet pile installation (Giken) to mitigate vibration and noise disturbance along delicate section of the alignment
• Top-down construction to lessen impacts at intersections to the surrounding communities.
• To reduce the overall duration and impact to the surrounding communities, the joint venture team proposed a full closure of Dixon Landing Road. This will allow the work in this area to finish approximately six months sooner than it would have with a lane-closure/ traffic-shift approach to the work.

The project worked over 1,000,000 labor hours without a recordable injury.