Cypress Freeway Reconstruction

Owner: Caltrans

Facilitator: Sue Dyer

Budget: $1B

Project Description

The 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake reduced the Cypress Freeway to ruble, killing 41. Hoping to avoid a future tragedy, the California Department of Transportation began planning for the building of a $1 billion replacement that could withstand a similar event. A Caltrans spokesman said, “Cypress was probably the most highly visible and highly political contract ever let in any environment in the country.”

The old Cypress was a major truck route that stretched through West Oakland’s largely African-American community. The community saw this catastrophe as its only opportunity to save their community. OrgMetrics was asked by Caltrans to design and facilitate a series of neighborhood meetings (partnering sessions) to gain community input and support for the rebuilding. Over 10 groups, including the West Oakland Community Representatives, the City of Oakland, FHWA, various labor unions, and representatives from the construction community, participated in what were at times very vocal and emotional meetings. It was clear that they wanted Caltrans to understand their concerns for the West Oakland community.

As a result of the outreach (partnering) sessions, the groups (many with strongly divergent points of view) began to talk together. Working together, they developed several incentives to entice the construction community to provide what the West Oakland Community needed.

The group’s recommendations allowed the project to go forward just days before the $750 million in federal funds were due to revert back to the federal government.

The final section of the Cypress Freeway reopened in 1998. The recently retired Caltrans district director said that the project never would have been built without the partnering sessions conducted by OrgMetrics.