Chinatown Construction Brings Kearny Street and Broadway Tunnel Closures in August

San Francisco has begun temporary traffic and transit changes in Chinatown to make room for construction on three city projects: the Portsmouth Square Improvement Project, the Chinatown Public Health Center and the Chinatown/Him Mark Lai Branch Library. The changes run from the end of July into the middle of August, and one of them takes the Broadway Tunnel out of service for a full weekend.

Public Works announced the changes on July 20 and put the start date at July 29. The SFMTA’s Chinatown transportation page dates the first Kearny Street lane closures to July 30 and files the work under “Chinatown Construction: July 30-August 9, 2026.” The Voice of San Francisco reported the closures on July 28.

Kearny Street closes on two weekends

Kearny Street between Clay and Washington streets will be fully closed from 1am Saturday, August 1 to 5am Monday, August 3, and again from 1am Saturday, August 8 to 5am Monday, August 10. Crews are demolishing the pedestrian bridge that connects Portsmouth Square to the Hilton San Francisco Financial District. Public Works says removing it adds 20,000 square feet of usable space to the square.

Partial closures on Kearny Street run July 30 to July 31, August 3 to August 7, and August 10 to August 15. At least two lanes stay open during those, and short lane closures may happen at other times as demolition proceeds.

Portsmouth Square Garage closes during both full weekend closures, August 1-2 and August 8-9, and stays open on weekdays. Monthly parkers are directed to St. Mary’s Square Garage at 433 Kearny Street.

What changes for Muni riders

The 8 Bayshore reroutes during the weekend closures, and the stop on Kearny Street north of Clay Street is out of service. Riders are directed to the stop on Clay Street at Montgomery, which is also a transfer point for the 1 California, or to the stop on Kearny Street just south of Jackson Street, about a block north. The 8AX and 8BX do not run on weekends, so they are unaffected.

During the weekday partial closures on July 30-31 and August 3-7, the Kearny and Clay stop moves to a temporary stop at Kearny and Commercial streets, southeast corner. During the August 10-15 partial closures the 8 Bayshore keeps its normal route and stops. Signs go up at the affected stops.

The Broadway Tunnel closes for a weekend, then loses lanes for about 14 months

The Chinatown Public Health Center sits directly above Broadway, and the building’s structural supports connect to the tunnel’s east entrance, so the seismic retrofit requires closing the tunnel. It is tentatively scheduled to close fully from 7am Saturday, August 15 to 5am Monday, August 17.

After that, one bore at a time is reconfigured to carry two-way traffic with a single lane in each direction. SFMTA puts the first phase, the eastbound bore, at about seven and a half months, followed by roughly seven months for the westbound bore. Public Works describes the combined partial closure as running from August 17, 2026 to approximately October 2027, or about 14 months, and says drivers should expect delays at peak times.

The city is also retiling the tunnel, replacing the lighting with LED fixtures and rebuilding the roadway, the center island and the pedestrian walkways while the work is under way. Regional detours identified by the city use Van Ness Avenue, Franklin Street, Bay Street, Columbus Avenue, Bush Street and The Embarcadero.

If you are visiting Chinatown

The work is on the eastern and southern edges of the neighborhood. Grant Avenue, Stockton Street and the Dragon Gate at Grant and Bush are outside the closure areas, and the Powell Street cable car lines are not part of the reroutes. Local access is being maintained for businesses on the east side of Kearny Street between Clay and Merchant streets during the full closures.

For most visitors the change is about driving and parking rather than walking. If you plan to drive in on an August weekend, Portsmouth Square Garage is the one to check first. For where to eat west of the construction, see our guide to dim sum and Chinatown classics, and for the rest of the month see things to do in San Francisco in August 2026.

How long the projects run

Public Works puts construction at about 25 months for Portsmouth Square, 30 months for the Chinatown Public Health Center and 30 months for the library, which starts construction in the fall of 2026. The three projects together come to more than $150 million. Traffic and transit plans are subject to change, and SFMTA posts current details on its Chinatown transportation updates page.

Photo: Supercarwaar, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.