Design closed on 6 August
The Powell Street Improvement Project cleared its environmental gate on 6 August 2026. The Planning Department determined that the work sits within the Better Streets Plan mitigated negative declaration and requires no subsequent declaration. The Public Works Commission adopted that determination as its own on 8 October 2026 and approved the construction phase in the same resolution.
Design is finished. The money is committed. The street opens to contractors in December.
The award and the modification
Resolution 2026-0019, adopted 26 February 2026, selected Clark Construction Group - California and authorised $1,047,819 over 180 days for pre-construction services. The resolution committed the department to no construction alternative.
Resolution 2026-0088, adopted 8 October 2026, raised the pre-construction phase by up to $800,000 and 60 days, to $1,847,819 over 240 days. It approved construction services at a not-to-exceed of $32,305,991 over 510 days. The total not-to-exceed is $34,153,810, with $3,415,381 contingency.
Scoring moved between the two procurements. Cost was 50 percent of the final score in February and 40 percent in October. The Local Business Enterprise requirement held at 20 percent. Clark committed 33.15 percent.
Three start dates in one record
The project page reads Design 2025-2026 and Anticipated Construction Fall 2026 - Winter 2027, with a start chip of Fall 2026. The October staff report reads notice to proceed 5 November 2026, construction start 15 December 2026, construction end 30 November 2027. The Downtown Development Corporation's 2 June release reads construction beginning in late 2026, with a ribbon-cutting planned for late 2027.
A capital plan should carry 15 December 2026 as the start. The contract holder published that date with the construction approval. The Fall 2026 chip is a page field that has not moved since the October vote.
Who carries the coordination
Public Works holds the contract and serves as project and construction manager. The delivery group named on the project page is the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, the San Francisco County Transportation Agency, the Office of Economic and Workforce Development, the Union Square Alliance and Field Operations, the landscape architect.
Coordination risk splits along the contract line. The city carries schedule and staging risk for the street, the cable car service and the utilities. A private owner carries the consequence: frontage access, deliveries, guest arrival and loading. The public record writes no remedy for that and publishes no per-property assignment.
Phasing and the first-phase money
The environmental attachment sets two construction scenarios. Full build-out is $37 million and depends on passage of the general obligation bond. A Phase 1 at $3.5 million carries two options: install the Grand Lantern at Market Street, or replace the existing parklets and defer the rest.
The October approval funds construction of the full scope in one phase over 510 days. The attachment's phased alternative no longer sets the schedule. The attachment also estimates a 545-day construction duration.
Two contracts on one agenda
Item 5c on the same 8 October agenda is a different contract on the same corridor. The Powell Street Safety Project, Contract No. 1000033787, rises from $3,010,386 to $3,566,095. The increase is $555,709, or 18.5 percent, for SFMTA interconnect conduit and the northeast Ellis Street bulbout. It shares a meeting date and a street name with the streetscape contract. It is not part of it.
Frontage, basements and loading
Sidewalks run 12 to 15 feet today. The rebuild takes them to 23 feet at every location except the loading zones at the Ellis, O'Farrell and Geary intersections. The widened area becomes a street-furnishing zone. Beneath it, subsidewalk basements sit at 20 addresses between 69 Powell Street and 247 Powell Street. The work includes reinforcement, replacement or repair of roof slabs, beams and columns, plus new waterproofing over them. Freight lifts, vaults and access hatches are preserved in place or relocated.
The dates to carry into a pro forma
One notice to proceed, one start, one end. The durations do not reconcile. The October staff report reads 240 pre-construction days, 510 construction days and a 750-day total. The agenda summary for the same item reads 630 days. The resolution recital reads 570. The February staff report reads 180 pre-construction days plus 390 construction days for the same 570. Underwrite the two fixed dates and not a duration.
The record publishes no closure calendar, no work-hour band and no per-property loading assignment. A neighbouring project that depends on Powell Street access should obtain its own staging agreement in writing before 15 December 2026.