Golden Gate Bridge & Highway 101 Closure in January 2015

UPDATE: Sunday, January 11, 2015, 10 p.m.

With the new median barrier fully in place, the Golden Gate Bridge reopened to traffic at 9:45 p.m. Sunday evening, more than six hours ahead of schedule.

December 22, 2014 

For the first time in its 77-year history, the Golden Gate Bridge will be closed for construction.

The bridge will be closed for 52 hours over the second weekend of January 2015. The Bridge will close at 12 a.m., Saturday, January 10, 2015. It will reopen at 4 a.m. Monday, January 12, 2015.

During this weekend, the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District will install a moveable median barrier on the bridge and its approaches. The barrier is expected to provide a safer system of separating opposing lanes of traffic, which will virtually eliminate the possibility of head-on collisions.

MTC is providing $20 million for the project, which amounts to 66 percent of the $30.3 million cost of the barrier.

The Bridge District urges the public to stay away from the bridge area during this weekend. If travel between San Francisco and the North Bay Area is necessary, here are some options to get to your destination:

• Golden Gate Transit bus service will be allowed to cross the Bridge. Buses will run on their usual weekend schedule.
• Golden Gate Ferry will be offering expanded service that weekend, including late night service.
• Vehicles traveling from the North Bay will need to use the Richmond-San Rafael and Bay Bridges to get into San Francisco.

The bridge’s east sidewalk will remain open to pedestrians and bicyclists, but the west sidewalk and parking lots at both ends of the bridge will be closed to the public. The bridge roadway will be closed completely to all vehicles other than Golden Gate Transit buses and emergency vehicles. SF MUNI 28 line will be allowed to maintain its route through the tunnel under the Golden Gate Bridge Toll Plaza.

California Highway Patrol, San Francisco Police, San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, National Park Service, Sausalito Police and Golden Gate Bridge sergeants office will begin closing access roads that lead to the Golden Gate Bridge at 9:30 pm on Friday, January 9, 2015, and complete closure of Highway 101/Golden Gate Bridge will occur at 12 am (midnight) Saturday morning, January 10, 2015.

In Marin, the Highway 101 closure will occur at the Marin City/Sausalito Exit. There will be no southbound access from Marin City to the bridge. There will be no northbound access from Alexander Avenue only. Access to northbound Highway 101 will be available from Spencer Avenue and Rodeo Avenue.

In San Francisco, the Highway 101 closure will occur at the intersection of Doyle Drive and Marina Boulevard. There will also be a closure at the intersection of Highway 1 (Park Presidio Boulevard) and Lake Street. There will be no northbound access to Highway 101 between those exits and the bridge.

During the weekends leading up to the closure, some work will be done at night on the bridge to remove the small raised pavement markers (“Botts” Dots) currently used to delineate traffic lanes. These pavement markers are not compatible with the moveable median barrier. The lanes will be restriped with a thermoplastic reflective material. The work will require nighttime lane closures.

For more information on the moveable median barrier project, please visit:goldengatebridge.org/projects/MoveableMedianBarrier.php.

—Information provided by the Golden Gate Bridge Highway and Transportation District