SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS Radio) -- A years-long closure of Stockton Street in San Francisco's Union Square area ends on Friday. The street is being re-opened between Geary and Ellis Streets, allowing motorists to once again reach the Bay Bridge and Interstate 80 from Chinatown.
The Stockton Street closure allowed construction crews to work on the Central Subway, a new transit link which will extend the Muni Metro T-Third Line through SoMa, Union Square and Chinatown. The subway runs beneath Stockton Street.
While automobile traffic will immediately have access to the two-block stretch of Stockton Street, bus riders will have to wait a bit. The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency says a number of bus lines that have been detoured away from Stockton Street will return on Monday. Two lines--the 30-Stockton and the 45-Union/Stockton--will return to Stockton Street later this year.
The decision to re-open Stockton Street to traffic means an end to what had become a bit of a holiday-season tradition. For the past several years, city officials laid carpeting over the construction site, brought in food trucks and amusements, and delighted Union Square shoppers with what they called the Winter Walk.
The Central Subway itself is scheduled to begin operations in January 2020.