South San Francisco Planning Commission advances infrastructure improvement plan

“The largest allocations are for parks, streets and traffic,” Principal Engineer Matt Ruble said during the Planning Commission meeting April 16.


About $3.8 million is earmarked for the main playground at Orange Memorial Park, with more funds allocated for other play areas and Centennial Trail improvements. An additional $865,000 will go toward the city’s long-awaited Aquatic Center, which is still under construction. 

Other projects include a grade separation effort at the South Linden Avenue rail crossing, which has $1 million set aside for preliminary engineering, and a battery back-up plan for traffic lights when the power goes down. 

"Just like a Tesla wall in your house, large batteries … will enable us to run the intersection while power is out and [maintain] safe traffic flow,” Ruble said. “What we’re doing with this is recognizing that a lot of our intersections are not going to be replaced in the near future, so this is our chance to retrofit those existing traffic signal cabinets.”

The plan also includes sewer-related investments, as well as a $10 million pump station upgrade on the eastern side of Highway 101 and a $14 million Water Quality Control Plant rehabilitation project. 

While the budget is for the upcoming fiscal year, the infrastructure projects are ongoing multi-year efforts which could see cost increase as the projects advance over time. For many traffic-related projects, the city relies heavily on impact fees — one-time fees paid by developers when they build a new project — which Ruble said can be used flexibly as needs or priorities change. 

“The city does receive traffic impact fees, and we usually have the flexibility to fund those projects so if it's a project of high desire and need, we would usually require the additional funding” Ruble said. “It really is on a case-by-case basis.”