Community members, advocates, and project partners convened for a ribbon-cutting on Tuesday, October 29, to celebrate the grand opening of a freshly minted stretch of the Cross Alameda Trail (CAT). The installation of the 0.7-mile segment along Clement Avenue between Grand Street and Broadway brings the CAT to 90% completion, which will ultimately offer a continuous east-west cycling route featuring separated two-way bike lanes and paved trails between Seaplane Lagoon and the Miller-Sweeney (Fruitvale) Bridge.
At Clement and Broadway, the eastern end of the new section, Mayor Marilyn Ezzy Ashcraft hailed the completion of the connection as an important investment “in Alameda’s transportation, infrastructure, and economy, enhancing community safety and building resilience to climate change and water level rise.”
Ashcraft recognized funding partners, Bike Walk Alameda, and all of the City of Alameda and consultant staff that worked tirelessly on the project. The project’s manager, Senior Transportation Coordinator Gail Payne, received a special shoutout.
Before cutting the red ribbon to cheers and fanfare, Ashcraft added, “For almost two decades, we have worked to realize the Clement Avenue corridor into a gateway to the Northern Waterfront. So thank you for joining us today to celebrate the culmination of that effort.”
The new bi-directional bike lanes on the north side of Clement Avenue are “protected” by parked vehicles and concrete curbs, and include biofiltration swales, intersection safety improvements, and a bike signal at the Park Street intersection. At Willow Street, the improvements connect with an existing section of the CAT along the Northern Waterfront.
Riding westbound on the new section of the Cross Alameda Trail between Park Street and Willow Street. Video Ken Der.
“I take this every day on my commute, and I’m really excited that it’s here,” said Jonathan MacMillan, who bikes to BART on his way to work in San Ramon. “It’s things like this that allow me to have a household with only one car.”
Jules Brouillet, a teacher at Lincoln Middle School who commutes from Berkeley, added, “It’s just wonderful to finally be integrating a safe network of bike trails from west to east. It’s very important to have safe routes to school, and to make this accessible to school-age people and families.”
The remaining portions of the CAT that are under construction in Alameda include the section through the former Pennzoil property between Hibbard Street and Grand Street, and the section along Tilden Way. The latter project, which received a $2.1 million grant from BART in July 2024 as part of the Safe Routes to BART program, will feature a new roundabout at the Blanding Avenue/Tilden Way/Fernside Boulevard intersection as well as new open space and a potential dog park on the former railroad right-of-way. Construction for both projects is expected to be completed in 2025.
In the long-term, separate walking and biking facilities will bridge the final gap over the Estuary to Oakland. Meanwhile, bicycle lanes will be added to the Fruitvale Bridge by 2025 and will connect with the Fruitvale Alive! project currently under construction in Oakland to widen sidewalks and install a sidewalk-level, protected bike lane along Fruitvale Avenue toward the Fruitvale BART Station.
Ken Der is a contributing writer for the Alameda Post. Contact him via [email protected]. His writing is collected at AlamedaPost.com/Ken-Der.
