Expanding Access to Transit in the Bay Area

Connecting five counties, BART supported approx­i­mately 405,000 average weekday trips pre-pandemic and consis­tently provides seamless mobility to communities for access to jobs, schools, medical services, shopping, recre­ational and cultural resources. Since the system began operation in 1972, it has contin­u­ously modernized and gradually expanded to provide safe, reliable, clean, quality transit service for Bay Area residents and visitors.

Bill Hurrell, a multimodal expert at CDM Smith, has over 40 years of experience working with BART. His expertise in multimodal trans­porta­tion planning is bolstered by a background that includes bus transit and bus rapid transit, rail transit, high-occupancy vehicle lane systems, and traffic engineering projects. His work with BART included work on the Oakland Airport Connector, the BART extension to San Francisco Inter­na­tional Airport, and potential future BART extensions to Livermore and West Contra Costa County. 

Conse­quently, Hurrell and the CDM Smith team were tapped by BART to support the East Contra Costa County BART extension (eBART), a 10-mile diesel multiple unit light rail branch line of the original BART system. Classified as a commuter rail system by the American Public Trans­porta­tion Association, eBART trains are available for passengers to transfer via a cross-platform interchange at an auxiliary BART stop. "This was an 18-year long project predom­i­nantly aimed at serving communities that are typified by equity priority minority and low-income populations. The East County had been promised BART since the system's inception, and we were able to help BART to bring the community members an extension of the BART system at a much lower cost and faster than expected," Hurrell said.

Hurrell has served as project manager for several different eBART related projects, including extension station planning and design to develop pedestrian circulation plans at the two new eBART stations in Pittsburg and Antioch. These plans required innovative coor­di­na­tion as both stations are located in the median of the SR4 freeway. To solve this challenge, bridges and vertical circulation infra­struc­ture were constructed to get passengers to and from the station platforms. Hurrell also served as project manager for Title VI envi­ron­men­tal justice analysis. He led comparisons of fare structure and operating plans to advocate for low-income and minority populations in Eastern Contra Costa County. Bill was a leader of public engagement for eBART as he took part in several workshops and public meetings and served as the face of the project team in each policy committee meeting.

"The most rewarding part of my career has been working with BART. Seeing things progress from planning to imple­men­ta­tion to success has been rewarding," Hurrell said. "We have formed rela­tion­ships with BART, working together as a team to get things done, and it's one of the reasons we have been successful. We have been able to work as an extension of their staff, side by side with them."