BART OKs funding to modernize Richmond Station

Bay Area Rapid Transit's (BART) board yesterday approved allocating funds and leveraging grants for a $4.3 million project to redesign the Richmond Station to improve customer access.

BART will combine $500,000 of its funds with regional grants to comply with the required match for $2.9 million in One Bay Area Grant funds approved by the Contra Costa Transportation Authority and allocated by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, BART officials said in a press release.

Partner grants include $186,200 from the West Contra Costa Transportation Advisory Committee and $744,800 in Proposition 1B Lifeline Program funding, bringing the total cost to redesign the station to $4.3 million, they said.

The project calls for transforming the outdated existing traffic area on the station's west side. The project is an example of the agency's efforts to transform its stations as "merely park-and-ride locations to [ones] also serving as inviting destinations," said Zakhary Mallett, a BART board member.