The roundabout at Tilden Way, Blanding Avenue and Fernside Boulevard opened to traffic on Tuesday, September 29, and Fernside connects to Tilden Way again. The closure has shifted rather than ended. Blanding Avenue between Broadway and Tilden Way is now shut for Stage 5B, which the City has scheduled through January 2027. Until then, anyone driving to the stretch of Blanding with Nob Hill Foods, BB Bowl and Rhythmix Cultural Works comes in from the Broadway end, and the walking and biking routes have changed too.
What September 29 gave back
For most of the summer, the Fernside approach to Tilden Way was closed. Drivers coming off the Miller-Sweeney Bridge, or heading to it, were sent around on Versailles and Buena Vista avenues. Alameda Post reported that the detour ended with the roundabout opening, along with the new eastern shared-use path on Tilden Way between Broadway and Fernside. The City's timeline shows that closure ran from May through September 2026, while crews built the roundabout and a temporary Tilden roadway north of it.
That means a Fernside-to-bridge trip works again. The roundabout is single-lane. If you haven't used one in a while, the City has posted a how-to page on roundabouts on the project site.
Some things didn't come back. Pedestrian crossings between Blanding Avenue and Fernside Boulevard stay closed until Stage 5B is done. And the simple right turn from Tilden onto Blanding is gone for now.
Driving onto Blanding now starts at Broadway
The detour is a new street. Crews began building a westbound extension of Clement Avenue between Broadway and Tilden Way in October 2025, as part of Stage 1. It's one-way, westbound only. The City's access notes send Blanding-bound drivers along Broadway and that new Clement roadway. Bridgeside Shopping Center at 2531 Blanding Avenue stays open throughout construction and is reached the same way, from Tilden Way via the Clement extension and Broadway.
That covers a lot of everyday errands. The center's own directory lists Nob Hill Foods, Pet Food Express, The UPS Store, Starbucks, Round Table Pizza, Club Pilates and BB Bowl, among others, and its visitor page says customer parking is free. If you drive, a grocery run, a pet-food stop and a package drop-off all start with a turn toward Broadway for now.
Here's how each kind of trip works under Stage 5B, based on the City's posted access notes:
| Getting around | How it works now | What's still closed |
|---|---|---|
| Driving to Blanding or Bridgeside | Broadway, then the one-way westbound Clement Avenue extension | Blanding between Broadway and Tilden Way |
| Driving between Fernside and the bridge | Through the new roundabout | None reported |
| Walking | New east-side sidewalks and paths on Tilden Way, Broadway to the Miller-Sweeney Bridge; the bridge's west walkway reaches the shopping center but goes no farther south | Crossings between Blanding and Fernside |
| Biking | Ride with traffic, use the east-side path and walk your bike on the bridge's east sidewalk, or get to the west sidewalk through the shopping center | The temporary asphalt bike trail on the west side of Tilden |
The cycling change is the biggest one for daily routines. The City calls it "a major change for bicyclists": the temporary west-side trail that riders used all summer is now part of the work zone. Inside the work area, street parking and driveway access are affected too. "No Parking" signs go up 72 hours before work starts, and the City says it will contact nearby residents and businesses directly as construction moves along.
If your household walks to Edison Elementary, the City has posted a suggested-routes map covering October through January on the same project page.
Directions written before the roundabout
The Broadway-end rule matters most for people heading somewhere just past Bridgeside after dark.
Rhythmix Cultural Works, the performing-arts and community space at 2513 Blanding Avenue, still posts directions from before the project. Coming from the Fruitvale Bridge, they say to "make your first right onto Blanding." Coming from the High Street Bridge, they say to follow Fernside until it "turns into Blanding Avenue." Both routes put the venue "just past the Bridgeside Shopping Center at the corner of Blanding and Everett." Each of those turns runs through the stretch of Blanding that's now closed. Using the City's posted detour instead, you'd come in by way of Broadway and the Clement extension.
The Rhythmix fall calendar runs right through the Stage 5B window. These are the dates on its events page:
- "The Locals" exhibition, on view through Sunday, October 25.
- A Funky Halloween with The Funk Revival Orchestra, Friday, October 30, 8 to 10 p.m.
- Mini Masterpieces Holiday Gifts Show 2026 reception, Friday, November 6, 6 to 8 p.m.
- The Amazing Bubble Man, Sunday, November 15, with shows at 2 p.m. and 4:30 p.m.
- Family Friendly Diwali Celebration with Non Stop Bhangra, Saturday, November 21, 4:30 to 7 p.m.
- Mini Masterpieces reception, Friday, December 4, 6 to 8 p.m.
- An Evening with Gamelan Sekar Jaya, Saturday, December 12, 7:30 to 9:30 p.m.
The December 12 concert falls in the last full month of Stage 5B as currently scheduled. If the timeline holds, it may be one of the last big nights on this block before the Tilden approach to Blanding reopens.
The bridge is still the narrow part
The new paths go all the way to the Miller-Sweeney Bridge, and riders felt the difference even before the roundabout opened. When temporary bike lanes opened in July, Streetsblog San Francisco quoted Bike Walk Alameda's Denyse Trepanier on riding from the base of the Fruitvale bridge to the Cross Alameda Trail at Broadway: "It was glorious!" She added, "This is going to be such a game-changer!" The same report described a direct walking and biking link from Oakland's Jingletown to the Nob Hill Foods center, after fences had blocked that access during construction.
The bridge itself hasn't changed. Streetsblog's Roger Rudick described "only a tiny little painted lane on the bridge road deck" of a four-lane street and said he crosses that short bit on the sidewalk. On the Oakland side, a paved path leads into Jingletown, and sidewalk-level bike lanes continue to Fruitvale BART. The City's Cross Alameda Trail page treats the bridge as a separate gap. It says the County is considering bike lanes on the bridge in 2027–28, and that the City's long-term recommendation is separate walking and biking space.
Under Stage 5B, a BART-bound rider from the East End has three options for the crossing, according to the City. You can share the road with vehicles, use the east-side Tilden path and walk your bike across the bridge's east sidewalk, or reach the west sidewalk through the shopping center.
What the rest of Stage 5 builds
The work on Blanding is the last stretch of a bigger trail project. The Tilden Way segment covers about 0.2 miles of the Cross Alameda Trail and runs on former Union Pacific railroad right-of-way between Broadway and the Miller-Sweeney Bridge. Stage 1 removed the old railroad tracks, platform and equipment. The City describes the finished project as completing the Cross Alameda Trail from the Miller-Sweeney/Fruitvale Bridge to Seaplane Lagoon.
Stage 5 still has to deliver:
- Blanding Avenue approach improvements at Tilden Way
- Pedestrian improvements on the east side of the Tilden Way and Broadway intersection
- Landscaping, irrigation and a new dog park
- Final paving
The dog park belongs to a neighborhood open-space area in the design the City Council endorsed. The plan also makes the spot where the Clement extension meets Broadway an all-way stop. The project also adds bus stop and accessibility improvements and pavement resurfacing.
On timing, the City lists Stage 5 as running through January 2027. In another spot on the same page it says the Blanding closure is "expected to end in early 2027," and it notes that closure lengths are subject to change. Detour maps for driving, walking and general circulation under Stage 5B are posted as PDFs on the City's project page, which is also the first place updates will appear.
As long-time Alameda residents, the Sophia Niu Group team keeps up with projects like this one for our neighbors. If you're wondering how the finished Tilden Way corridor, the new dog park or the trail connection might affect your street, we're glad to talk it through, in English or Mandarin. Request a free home valuation and neighborhood consultation whenever it suits you.
