MacArthur Maze

Route information
Maintained by CalTrans
Location
Country	United States
State	California
Highway system
San Francisco Freeways

The MacArthur Maze refers to a complex of freeway interchanges located near the eastern end of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge in Oakland, California. Local traffic reporters and residents also refer to it as the Oakland Maze, the Bay Bridge Maze, or simply the Maze. The complex consists of Interstate 80, Interstate 580, Interstate 880, Interstate 980, and California State Route 24.

Description

Because of its central location within the San Francisco Bay Area and the geography of the bay and the local hills and mountains which limits where roads and bridges can be placed, the Maze has become a major hub for both east-west and north-south traffic in the Bay Area.

The Maze is a major corridor for commuters living in the East Bay and working in San Francisco. The Maze is immediately adjacent to both the Port of Oakland, which is the fourth busiest port in the United States , and the downtown for the City of Oakland. Two major interstate freeways from outside of the Bay Area region, namely I-80 and I-5 (via either I-80 or I-580) connect to the Maze. And most out of state railroad shipments to the Bay Area arrive at train yards located near the Maze. All of these factors generate substantial traffic.

Freeways connecting to the Maze

All of the East Bay’s nearby major freeways along with the approach to the San Francisco Bay Bridge converge in the general vicinity of the Maze. These freeways include:

• The Bay Bridge - Interstate 80 from the Maze heads west across the Bay Bridge into San Francisco.
• The Eastshore Freeway - The Interstate 80/Interstate 580 concurrency from the Maze heads north through Berkeley and western Contra Costa County. (At the Berkeley-Albany border, approximately 4 miles north of the Maze, the concurrency splits, with Interstate 80 heading northeast towards Sacramento and Interstate 580 heading northwest towards the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge and eventually to Marin County, where it joins U.S. 101.)
• The MacArthur Freeway - Interstate 580 from the Maze heads southeast through Oakland just below the Oakland Hills towards Hayward (and eventually near Tracy, where it joins with Interstate 5).
• The Nimitz Freeway - Interstate 880 from the Maze heads south through Oakland along the Oakland Estuary, towards southern Alameda County and San Jose.
• California State Route 24 from the Maze heads northeast through Oakland to the Caldecott Tunnel and to central Contra Costa County.
• Interstate 980 is a short spur near downtown Oakland connecting Interstate 580/Highway 24 with Interstate 880.

The interchanges of the Maze

Opinions vary among local residents and traffic reporters as to what freeways and interchanges constitute the Maze. In its broadest interpretation, the Maze refers to a complex of four separate freeway interchanges which are all located in a three square mile area of West Oakland. Together, there are a total of 25 inbound lanes into this complex, with 20 possible routes through the Maze from one freeway to another.

At minimum, the term MacArthur Maze refers to one or both of the interchanges located on the MacArthur freeway. These are the two interchanges are the most heavily used interchanges in the complex. Below is a list of the interchanges that are most often described as being part of the Maze:

Distribution structure

The distribution structure is the oldest part of the Maze. It is also the single structure most likely, under current usage by traffic reporters and local travelers, to be referred to as the MacArthur Maze.

The distribution structure lies at the eastern end of the approach to the Bay Bridge. It is a full three-way intersection between the Bay Bridge approach (I-80) to the west, the Eastshore Freeway (I-80/580) to the north, and the MacArthur Freeway to the southeast (I-580). It additionally carries north-south traffic between the Eastshore and the Nimitz Freeways (I-880).

The Interstate 580/Interstate 980/California State Highway 24 interchange

The name "MacArthur Maze" is also sometimes applied singularly to the 580/980/24 interchange. It lies just southeast of the distribution structure. State Route 24 and Interstate 980 create a continuous thoroughfare, where SR-24 intersects I-580 from the northeast and I-980 intersecting from the southwest. It is a full 4-way intersection of an 8-lane and a 10-lane freeway. From any direction, a driver has a choice of three different directions to travel on a freeway, and all directions are well-traveled. To add to its complication, there are several large-capacity on and off ramps located within the interchange, and there are four levels of roadway. The 580/980/24 interchange is the only complete symmetrical stack interchange in the entire Bay Area.

Only a half-mile of elevated roadway separate the end of the ramps of the 580/980/24 interchange before the beginning of the ramps for the distribution structure, which is less than the length of most of the ramps of either structure. This short distance between the interchanges makes it appear to the driver as a single unit, and many drivers are not even aware that the two interchanges are separate.

The 80/880 Interchange

Just a quarter mile south of the Distribution Structure, the Nimitz freeway (Interstate 880) separates into two segments. San Francisco-bound traffic is diverted to the west towards the Bay Bridge, while Berkeley Sacramento-bound traffic continues on to the Distribution Structure and to the Eastshore Freeway (80/580 concurrency).

The Interstate 880-Interstate 980 interchange

This is a partial interchange allowing traffic from Interstate 880 north to access downtown Oakland and SR-24 to the west. It also offers travelers on 880 an alternate route to the Bay Bridge and to the Eastshore Freeway by taking I-980 to I-580 via the 580/980/24 interchange. This alternate route was heavily traveled during the replacement of the Cypress Street Viaduct following the Loma Prieta Earthquake.

Railroad and BART

The Union Pacific Railroad (formerly Southern Pacific Railroad) tracks run directly through the center of the distribution structure, but often go unnoticed since every freeway passing near the tracks does so on an elevated platform. These active rail lines handle a high volume of traffic. In the north the railroad tracks parallel the I-80/I-580 freeway, and in the south they parallel the I-880 freeway. Amtrak California commuter trains to Sacramento and San Jose travel this route.

The rail lines of the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) converge in a manner similar to the freeway system trains. BART's East Bay lines—the Fremont Line, the Dublin/Pleasanton Line, the Pittsburg/Bay Point Line and the Richmond Line—all roughly parallel the local freeways, converging in downtown Oakland where the passenger has the option of either heading west to San Francisco via the Transbay Tube underneath the San Francisco Bay, or continue along one of the other lines in the East Bay.

History

Portion of the collapsed Cypress Viaduct in Oakland following the Loma Prieta earthquake

The oldest part of the Maze, the distribution structure, was built as part of the construction of the Bay Bridge in the 1930s. It was smaller in scale than today's complex interchanges but at the time was still impressive. It was built to handle automobile and streetcar traffic east and west bound traffic across the Bay Bridge along with north and south bound automobile traffic in the East Bay. There were three principal feeder routes utilizing ramps: a viaduct from the end of Cypress Street (State Highway 17) in Oakland; a viaduct from the end of 38th Street (U.S. Highway 50; 38th was subsequently renamed "MacArthur Boulevard") at San Pablo Avenue in Oakland; and the Eastshore Highway which carried U.S. Highway 40 along the shoreline of Albany, Berkeley, and Emeryville.

The nickname "MacArthur" Maze originated upon construction of the MacArthur Freeway in the late 1950s (named after General Douglas MacArthur).

Historic film footage of the early Maze can be seen in the 1941 movie, Shadow of the Thin Man as Nick and Nora Charles drive off the Bay Bridge on their way to Golden Gate Fields in Albany.

Effects of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake

During the October 17, 1989, Loma Prieta earthquake, which measured 7.1 on the Richter scale, the double-decked Cypress Street Viaduct on I-880 between I-80 and I-980 collapsed, crushing cars and killing 42 people. Traffic on the MacArthur Maze headed towards I-880 was re-routed to I-580 and I-980, and ramps leading to the former Cypress Structure were signed for local traffic access to Cypress Street.

The Cypress Street Viaduct was demolished soon after the earthquake, but a replacement freeway was not built until July 1997, due to lawsuits by environmentalists and local residents. The rebuilt highway was no longer a double-decker structure. It was constructed around the outskirts of West Oakland, rather than bisecting it, as the Cypress structure did.

2007 connector collapse

A portion of Interstate 580 following the collapse.

At 3:42 am on the morning of Sunday, April 29 2007, a tank truck carrying 8,600 gallons (32,500 liters) of unleaded gasoline overturned on the connector from Interstate 80 west (from Berkeley) to Interstate 880 south.Wikimapia The intense heat from the subsequent fuel spill and fire weakened the steel structure of the roadway above, which served as the connecting ramp from Interstate 80 east (from San Francisco) to Interstate 580 east (to Oakland), collapsing approximately 168 feet (50 m) of it onto the lower connector. The truck driver involved suffered second degree burns on his hands but was nonetheless able to walk 1.5 miles (2.4 km) to a gas station, where he found a taxi and was given a ride to Oakland Kaiser Medical Center. No other vehicles or persons were reported to be involved in the accident.

The California Highway Patrol (CHP) initially reported that they suspect that the tanker had been speeding and bounced off a guard rail leading to the overturn. It later came to light that the truck driver, employed by Sabek Transportation, had a criminal record dating back to the 1980s, including two felonies. However, the driver had a clean record in the preceding decade, and drug or alcohol use was determined not to be a factor in this accident.

Caltrans spokespersons estimated immediately after the accident that it would take weeks to clear the debris from the scene and months to rebuild the affected sections. However, most demolition work and debris removal was completed by the Tuesday following the accident. Initial cost projections for rebuilding the 580 connector alone reached $10 million. For a historic comparison, Caltrans did successfully replace a single damaged upper deck panel of the Bay Bridge (after the Loma Prieta earthquake) and the collapsed portion of the I-10 Santa Monica Freeway in Los Angeles (after the Northridge Earthquake) in roughly one month by expediting its internal approval process and offering an incentive program for the contractors.

The collapse of this bridge immediately cut off the return route from San Francisco for many East Bay commuters (primarily those whose destinations are Walnut Creek and southeastern Oakland). Caltrans set up temporary detours within the days following the incident to ease the expected traffic snarl, though as of May 3 2007 these expected traffic jams and long delays were yet to fully materialize. BART also added additional capacity to lines serving areas that have been impacted by this incident, and posted record ridership numbers as of May 3 2007. On Monday April 30, all public transportation in the Bay Area was free, with the estimated cost of $2.5 million paid out of state funds. News commentators have pointed out the similarities to the disruption caused by the Loma Prieta earthquake 18 years earlier.

On May 7 2007, the I-880 connector reopened at 4:30 am to traffic. Substantial work was done to retrofit the structure for strength, which sank 9 inches due to the collapse of the I-580 connector onto the I-880 connector.

File:Img3078.JPG

The connector during reconstruction work.

A contractor with a proven track record of rebuilding damaged freeways (most notably the Santa Monica Freeway in 1994) well ahead of schedule, C. C. Myers, Inc., submitted a winning bid of $876,075 to repair the damage to the I-580 connector. The bid was estimated to cover only one-third of the cost of the work, but the firm counted on making up the shortfall with an incentive of $200,000 per day if the work was completed before June 27, 2007. The I-580 connector re-opened on the evening of Thursday, May 24, just before the busy Memorial Day weekend. The deadline to finish the project was beaten by over a month, with the contractor winning a $5 million bonus for early completion. The entire reconstruction project was completed only 26 days after the original accident.

As of May 18, a state projection concluded that the connector collapse had cost $90 million, based on a $6 million per day economic impact estimate. This includes a $491,000 loss in toll revenue for the Oakland Bay Bridge.

On May 25 2007, the CHP revoked the license for transporting hazardous materials from Sabek Transportation after an investigation found 36 violations of its operations and equipment.

Locations, maps

The Distribution Structure (80/580/880 interchange)

37.8271°N 122.2911°W / 37.8271; -122.2911

I-580 / I-980 / CA-24 interchange

37.8246°N 122.2682°W / 37.8246; -122.2682

I-880 / I-980 interchange

37.8014°N 122.2809°W / 37.8014; -122.2809

External links

• Template:Geolinks-US-hoodscale
• Traffic Camera (Windows Media format) looking north of the MacArthur Maze on I-80East/580West (right) just over the I-880 interconnect (center) (left is I-80West/580East) - from Caltrans Live Traffic Cameras
• Cypress Street Viaduct includes map of old Distribution Structure with old U.S. Highway 40/U.S. Highway 50 designations
• Roadway to Bay Bridge collapses after tanker explosion With photographs of 2007 collapse, SFGATE
• Construction Photos of the Bay Bridge, including the Distribution Structure