Geary's Pipes Are Done. Here's Why the Street Still Looks Patched
Walk Geary from Arguello to Park Presidio and the pavement tells the story of the last two years. Strips of darker asphalt cross the lanes. The concrete curbs and gutters at the corners are new and bright. The street surface between them looks unfinished, and it is.
The unfinished part is deliberate. The utility crews who tore up Geary have packed up. The patchwork is temporary paving put down to cover their trenches until a separate city contract arrives. The city calls that contract the final construction on this corridor, and most of it lands on specific corners you already walk past.
The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission's Geary Boulevard Sewer and Water Improvements Phase 2 project page says the job between 32nd Avenue and Stanyan Street was 100 percent complete as of October 9, 2026. The page also says the contractor has demobilized and removed all equipment and materials. The scope was about 1.4 miles of sewer mains and 6.7 miles of water mains. The same page says most of the pipe it replaced dated to the late 1800s.
That finish beat every published estimate. SFMTA's timeline graphic planned the utility work to run from early 2025 until mid-2027. On September 5, 2026, an SFPUC-sponsored update in the Richmond Review/Sunset Beacon put the project at 80 percent and targeted spring 2027. At that point the Inner Richmond end, Segment B from 12th Avenue to Stanyan, was still being restored.
The same update explains the patches. Excavated areas got new curbs, gutters, parking strips and concrete street base. Temporary paving went on top "until final street paving begins under a separate SFMTA project expected in late 2026." SFMTA's own weekly traffic advisory for October 22 to 28 still lists the sewer and water work as running "until 2027." The SFPUC's October 9 completion notice is the more recent word on that work.
Some of what people expect from "the Geary project" already happened. In fall 2023, city crews used paint and signs to install the Quick-Build portion. That covered transit lanes, bus stop changes, left-turn restrictions and daylighting at corners. On the Inner Richmond stretch, that included:
The parking trade-off is also mostly settled. SFMTA's FAQ says almost all parking changes came with the 2023 Quick-Build. Converting some cross-street spaces to angled parking brought the corridor-wide net loss down to 31 spaces, less than one per block on average.
The city measured what that first round did. In a July 2025 evaluation summary, SFMTA reported transit travel times 6 to 11 percent lower than before the Quick-Build, about 235 rider-hours saved each day, and injury collisions in the project area down by one-third. The same summary put the median time to find parking at under a minute. So the coming work does not reroute your bus or change where you can turn. It replaces paint with concrete.
The second phase is the part a contractor builds. SFMTA describes it as bus bulbs, pedestrian bulbs, traffic signal upgrades and final repaving. In SFMTA's published design overview, the Arguello-to-Park Presidio stretch breaks down like this:
Intersection | Planned for the concrete phase |
|---|---|
Arguello | Transit bulb at the southeast corner |
2nd Avenue | Expanded east and west median refuges |
3rd Avenue | Pedestrian bulb at the northeast corner, expanded west median |
4th Avenue | Pedestrian bulbs on all four corners, expanded east median |
5th Avenue | Expanded east and west medians |
6th Avenue | Transit bulbs at northwest and southeast corners, pedestrian bulbs at northeast and southwest |
7th through 10th avenues | Expanded median refuges at each |
11th Avenue | Pedestrian bulb at the northeast corner, expanded west median |
12th Avenue | Pedestrian bulbs at northeast and southwest corners |
Park Presidio | Transit bulbs at northwest and southeast corners, expanded east, south and west medians |
Two raised crossings are also on the list, at the south crossing of Funston and the north crossing of 14th Avenue. The new mast-arm signals begin at 16th Avenue, just west of Park Presidio. That means the Inner Richmond blocks get curb and median work rather than new signal poles.
Park Presidio gets the most visible change. SFMTA's community enhancement plan puts glass-aggregate decorative concrete at six Rapid stops, and the Park Presidio inbound and outbound stops are the only pair in the Inner Richmond. The inbound design is park-themed and the outbound design is ocean-themed. Both were created with honors art students from George Washington High School. The same plan adds about 50 new trees along the corridor. Medians get Coast Live Oak and Monterey Cypress, and sidewalks get California Buckeye, California Bay Laurel and Primrose Tree. At 6th Avenue, SFMTA says one tree already removed will be replaced with five nearby.
The city has hired the builder. At its July 23, 2026 meeting, the Public Works Commission approved a contract award to Esquivel Grading and Paving, Inc. The award is $17,591,275 plus $1,759,127 in contingency. It runs 450 consecutive calendar days, with 45 more days of contingency. The memo describes the work as pavement renovation, pedestrian safety improvements, streetlighting and signal upgrades, landscaping and traffic control. It also lists some sewer replacement of its own, separate from the SFPUC project that just wrapped up. The project went out to bid on April 27, 2026, and drew seven bids. After a bid protest was resolved, the city named Esquivel the lowest responsive bidder in early July.
The memo explains why the corridor won't look torn up indefinitely. It says the surface upgrades are "sequenced after the underground improvements and are the final construction activity along this corridor." The SFPUC's water and sewer mains went in first, so this one contract can handle the remaining underground items and the final surface together.
On timing, SFMTA's project page says the agency is "preparing to start construction this fall" and will begin regular construction updates later in the season. It puts total project cost at $48 million and predicts completion in early 2028. As of late October, SFMTA had not posted a start date for surface work, and no block-by-block calendar has been published. Fifteen months of contract time explains the early 2028 finish. Signing up for SFMTA's project alerts is the most direct way to know when crews arrive on your block.
Those corners line up with places on Geary that people already know.
At Geary and 4th Avenue, where every corner gets a pedestrian bulb, Zee's Munchies opened in February 2026 inside Abraham's Farmers Market. The Richmond Review reported it as the Oakland-born franchise's first San Francisco location, serving crepes, mini pancakes, milkshakes, smoothies and coffee.
At 11th Avenue, which gets a northeast-corner bulb and a wider west median, Would You Believe? has been pouring at 4652 Geary since 1986. It was added to the city's Legacy Business Registry in 2026, according to the Richmond Review. Just across the street, My Tofu House at 4627 Geary served its last meal on August 3 after nearly 25 years. The Richmond Review reported that the owner retired and the lease expired.
At the corridor's east end, Hoodline reported on October 11 that Banh Mi A Mui is open at 3401 Geary at Beaumont. It is run by the team behind the Sing Sing Coffee Shop and brings back that shop's $8 bánh mì. A few doors east, Mel's Drive-In is still at 3355 Geary. According to the San Francisco Examiner, it first opened there in 1952, closed in 1972 and reopened in 1988.
Merchants have a formal channel for the next phase. During the Quick-Build, SFMTA ran a Small Business Working Group that met five times and directed project funds to two campaigns. One was the "Central Richmond: Everything You Need" ads on Muni buses. The other installed window and tree lighting at 28 Geary businesses. SFMTA says it will reconvene the group when construction begins later in 2026. Merchants and neighbors with questions about the work can reach the project team at [email protected] or 415.646.2300.
Living near a block that's about to see one more round of cones raises practical questions about access, timing and what the corridor looks like when the concrete sets in 2028. I keep up with this stretch of Geary, and I'm always glad to talk through what it means for your corner of the Inner Richmond. Reach out to Janeen Anderson and let's connect.