San Francisco Bulk Mail Center, Richmond, California: Fid-Bau Portal

San Francisco Bulk Mail Center, Richmond, California

The San Francisco Bulk Mail Center is one of twenty-one bulk mail centers strategically located throughout the United States. The centers are to be constructed by the Corps of Engineers and operated by the U.S. Postal Service. The centers are designed to increase the efficiency of handling basically third and fourth class mail and are estimated to reduce postal service costs in the order of $300 million annually. The San Francisco Center occupies a 56-acre site which is located on an existing land filled industrial park in San Francisco Bay. Principal features of the Center include a seven-acre mail process building, two smaller service structures, parking areas, and landscaped open space recreational areas for public use. The Center is scheduled to be in operation by spring 1975. Building construction, equipment installation, utilities, landscaping, and paving of streets and parking areas are scheduled for completion in late 1974. The project will upgrade what was once an unmaintained and uncontrolled site which was used for the illegal disposal of refuse and occasional public recreation. The project will provide a landscaped, open space shoreline recreational area for public use; a new source of employment in an area exhibiting a high rate of unemployment; and an opportunity for improved economic conditions of nearby communities. The only significant adverse effect of the project will be the visual impact of large industrial building and associated facilities along the shoreline of San Francisco Bay as viewed by nearby hillside residents.