BART work ahead of schedule, planned station closures shift to single track

BART officials said Monday that some planned track closures near the Lafayette station on upcoming weekends are no longer necessary because construction crews rebuilding a large section of trackway are ahead of schedule.

BART had announced six planned shutdowns of service between Walnut Creek and Orinda starting last month because of the work repairing or replacing nearly 50-year-old track components.

Because the work is ahead of schedule, the planned shutdown this upcoming Saturday and Sunday has now been changed to single-tracking between those stations, meaning trains in both directions will have to take turns traveling along one trackway, according to BART.

The single-tracking will eliminate the need for bus shuttles between Orinda and Walnut Creek, but riders should still expect delays of up to 30 minutes, BART officials said. Plans to temporarily close the two left eastbound lanes of state Highway 24 in the area remain in place.

Future weekends also will have improved service as the result of the work being ahead of schedule. Planned single-tracking and overnight Highway 24 lane closures on Sept. 21 have been canceled. The shutdown and lane closures on the weekend of Oct. 12 have also been canceled, according to BART.

The remaining track shutdown weekends still scheduled are Sept. 28-29 and Oct. 26-27.