Work Starts on San Francisco’s Transbay Transit Center

Construction work has begun on the first phase of the Transbay Transit Center worth $1.6bn in downtown San Francisco, US.

Designed by Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects, the structure will connect the city and the bay area via 11 public transit systems and will be a destination for both transit users and the general public, according to globest.com.

The complex will also serve as the first US high-speed rail station being built as part of the California high-speed rail line.

The design of the centre is a glass-and-steel structure that will serve 12 transit systems, including Caltrain and future California high-speed rail.

The new transit centre accommodates a variety of transportation systems including AC Transit, Caltrain, MUNI, Golden Gate Transit, SamTrans, Greyhound, BART, WestCAT and future California High-Speed Rail.

The new transit center is scheduled to open in 2017 while phase II of the project will provide rail access to the new centre via an underground tunnel at Fourth and King streets and is expected to be complete later this decade.