On Lakeshore Avenue, the concrete is going in. In late September, Bike East Bay reported that the concrete separators for the new two-way bikeway and the bus boarding islands were "now taking shape." Paving the full roadway comes next, then the lane striping. The project covers Lakeshore from East 18th Street to El Embarcadero, the stretch where the old painted bike lanes ran along the door zone of parked cars. According to Streetsblog San Francisco, those painted lanes were already gone by late June.
The finish date has moved more than once. A second project is lined up behind it on Grand Avenue, in the same district, planned to start in 2027. If both schedules hold, Grand Lake goes almost directly from one street project to the next.
Lakeshore's finish line has moved twice
The City of Oakland's project page keeps a running log of updates. Read in order, it shows how the schedule has changed:
- July 2025. Construction was set to begin July 21, 2025, and take roughly 12 to 15 months. On that schedule, the project would be wrapping up right about now.
- April 2026. Crews found damaged infrastructure under the road, and the project was redesigned to bring Lakeshore up to a state of good repair and protect aging utilities. The plan was to resume in May, with completion targeted for late fall 2026.
- June 2026. The pavement failures turned out to be worse than expected, and investigators also found shallow underground utility conflicts. Portions of the project were redesigned again. Major excavation and base repair restarted the week of June 22 between East 18th Street and Brooklyn Avenue, then moved to the stretch from Brooklyn to MacArthur Boulevard the week of July 6. The estimated completion date became early 2027.
- September 2026. Bike East Bay's update says the work will continue through the end of 2026, weather permitting.
The two heaviest weeks came with strict limits: weekday parking on Lakeshore was suspended, the center turn lane was closed, left turns onto and off of Lakeshore were banned, and each direction had a single driving lane. Barriers came down by the end of each Friday, AC Transit kept running, and the walking path along the lake stayed open. The City tied those rules to the June and July work windows. Its page has not posted a newer update since then, so it doesn't spell out the curb and lane rules for this fall.
Bike riders get the clearest guidance. Bike East Bay says some access to the southbound Lakeshore bikeway will be affected during the remaining work. During those stretches, riders can either use the off-street trail along the lake, slowly and passing pedestrians with care, or ride in the street with car traffic.
Once the base repair is done, the City says OakDOT will build the remaining pieces: concrete medians, the two-way bikeway improvements, and safety upgrades at intersections.
Grand Avenue is next, with its angled parking kept
Grand Avenue is still in design. In summer 2026, OakDOT released 65% drawings for the Grand Avenue Complete Streets Paving Project, which runs from Broadway in Uptown to Mandana Boulevard in the Grand Lake District. Construction is expected to start in summer 2027.
The Grand Lake segment, from Santa Clara Avenue and Lake Park Avenue up to Mandana, has the detail most people will look for first. The front-in angled parking stays. The redesign adds a two-way center turn lane and a bikeway separated from traffic by parked cars and concrete wheel stops. New commercial loading zones give delivery and ride-share drivers a spot at the curb so they don't double-park. The City says parking loss will be minimal and that the design draws on a similar setup on 10th Street in Chinatown. Bike East Bay noted approvingly that the physically protected bikeway now runs through the Grand Lake area north of 580.
Here are the two projects side by side as of mid-October 2026:
| Lakeshore Avenue | Grand Avenue | |
|---|---|---|
| Stretch | E. 18th St. to El Embarcadero | Broadway to Mandana Blvd. |
| Status | Under construction | Detailed design, 65% drawings |
| Current timing | Work through end of 2026; City estimates completion early 2027 | Construction anticipated summer 2027 |
| Bikeway | Two-way protected bikeway with concrete medians | Separated bikeway; parking-protected in Grand Lake |
| Parking note | Weekday parking suspended during the June and July heavy-work weeks | Front-in angled parking retained in Grand Lake |
Lakeshore's finish date has already slipped from late fall 2026 to early 2027, and Grand's start is set for summer 2027. That leaves a few months between them, on paper. Lakeshore's dates have already moved twice, and Grand's could move too.
What opened and closed while the cones were up
Businesses kept opening and closing through the construction summer.
- Mazar Cafe soft-opened at 2834 Lakeshore Ave. in late July. The Oaklandside reported the opening on July 28, a few days after it happened.
- The former Gap on Lakeshore is boarded up. The Lakeshore Avenue business district says a temporary "Lakeshore Love" mural now covers the plywood while the property owners look for a new tenant.
- Obelisco is coming up on one year on Lakeshore Avenue, according to the same September post.
- Bar Skula opened July 1 at 542 Grand Ave., on the lake end of Grand toward Adams Point, The Oaklandside reported.
- Twin Flame, a Japanese robata restaurant, opened in the One Piedmont building at 230 W. MacArthur Blvd. and planned a grand opening for July 9, according to Berkeleyside.
The business district's August roundup also covered some upkeep you may have noticed. The public parking garage closed briefly for structural repairs and concrete patching, and crews were replacing the broken string lights over the avenue. The same post noted that Peet's hosted a fan event for Gabby Williams on July 27.
The dates that don't depend on the construction
The weekly and seasonal fixtures run on their own schedules:
- Grand Lake Farmers Market: every Saturday, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., rain or shine, at Splash Pad Park. The Agricultural Institute of Marin runs it.
- Grand Lake Theatre special screenings: Tuesday, Oct. 20; Wednesday, Oct. 21; and Wednesday, Nov. 4, at 3200 Grand Ave. Showtimes are posted on the theatre's site.
- Lakeshore Candy Crawl & Harvest Festival: Saturday, Oct. 24, 10 a.m. to noon, on Lakeshore Avenue and the Lakeshore Baptist Church green, with the parade at 11 a.m., per the business district's announcement. The farmers market runs that same Saturday morning, a short walk away under the freeway.
- Lakeshore holiday event: the business district holds it each year on the first weekend in December.
If Lakeshore's work runs through the end of the year as Bike East Bay expects, the Candy Crawl and the December holiday event will both happen with construction still underway on the avenue. The City's project page is where any newer schedule will show up first. For construction questions, it lists resident engineer Aaron Mao at [email protected]. For Grand Avenue, the full draft plans are posted as a PDF on that project's page, and OakDOT lists Charlie Ream at [email protected] for questions and comments.
If you own a home near Lakeshore or Grand and you're wondering how two years of street work fits with your own timing, whether you're thinking about selling, settling an estate, or just planning ahead, Myron Potter is happy to go through it with you calmly and with the facts in front of you. Book an appointment whenever it's useful.