Visitor Information

If you are visiting NERSC for a conference, meeting, or event, your host will arrange site access before your visit. (Site access clearance can take time, so please give your host as much lead time as possible.) 

Berkeley Lab operates shuttle buses for employees and visitors. To board the shuttle, you will need the following:

• Government-issued ID (such as a passport or state-issued driver’s license) and
• An invitation, event confirmation, or email from your host. 

Use the TripShot app to plan a ride, look up schedules, find stops, and for real-time arrival information.

To get to NERSC, take the Blue Route, which has stops in downtown Berkeley near the BART station and around the perimeter of the UC Berkley Campus. Catch the “Uphill Blue” shuttle (look for the lighted head sign) at the bus stop near Shattuck and Allston Way. 

If you catch the shuttle at any stop other than downtown, you must wave to flag down the driver, as these stops also serve city and UC Berkeley buses. 

Bicycle helmets are required while riding a  scooter or a bicycle on the Berkeley Lab campus.

Bicycling to and around campus is a popular option. BART and many area buses accommodate bikes. If you’d rather not ride up the hill, most Lab shuttles have bike racks on both front and back. These are available on a first-come, first-serve basis. Always make sure the driver knows that you are loading a bike before you do so, especially on the rear racks.

If you decide to ride to the Lab, be sure your mapping app is navigating to “Blackberry Gate,” or you may be sent to an entrance unable to admit visitors. Enter using the lane marked for visitors. Present your government-issued ID and your site access pass at the gatehouse.

Bicycle helmets are required while riding a scooter or a bicycle on the Berkeley Lab campus.

Rent a sit-down electric scooter or an electric bike and ride it to and around the Lab campus. Park your rental at any bike rack. There are bike racks in the plaza just outside Building 59 / Wang Hall. Please do not park scooters and bikes in other locations nor secure them to fences, light poles, or other fixtures.

If you are using a mapping app, be sure to navigate to “Blackberry Gate,” or you may be sent to any one of the Lab’s three gates.

Enter using the lane marked for visitors. Present your government-issued ID and the site access pass from your host.

Visitors who have cleared it with their host may drive to campus in a private or rented vehicle. Please do not drive if you have not prearranged it with your host, who must clear parking with site access prior to your arrival.

If you are using a mapping app, be sure to navigate to “Blackberry Gate,” or you may be sent to any one of the Lab’s three gates.

Enter using the lane marked for visitors. Present your government-issued ID and your site access pass. 

If your host has prearranged it, you will receive a general parking pass, which entitles you to park spaces marked with a blue triangle or those that are unmarked. Do not park in spaces that are reserved for specific people or functions, government vehicles, electrical vehicle charging stations, or those marked with an orange circle.

A limited number of accessible parking spaces (with room for wheelchair lifts) is available near the Wang Hall entrance. Only vehicles displaying unexpired state handicapped plates or parking placards may use these spaces.

For the safety of everyone on campus, including our plentiful wildlife, please observe Berkeley Lab’s campus-wide 15 mph speed limit.

Board the Berkeley Lab “Uphill Blue” shuttle bus and show the driver a copy of your visitor pass and a photo ID. (Do not take other shuttle routes such as Orange.) Tell the driver you are going to the “Building 65 stop” and ask them to let you know when you are there.

When the shuttle arrives at Blackberry Gate (the main gate for Berkeley Lab), site security may board the bus, ask for your ID, and check it against site access records to confirm that you are on the visitor list.

While this is happening, look up and to the right to see Building 59 / Wang Hall. This is your destination.

After the shuttle passes through the gate, it may stop at the foot of the building if a rider requests it. Don’t get off here; Building 65 is the next stop.

The bus will climb an incline and turn left into a circle drive with three flagpoles. This is the Building 65 stop.

Get off the shuttle and turn to face the main road.

Across the street is Perlmutter Road (marked with a street sign). Walk up the slight incline (behind the guard rails) to the crosswalk and cross Chu Road. Walk up the hill on Perlmutter Road. Use the white-painted cross-hatched pathway on the left of the road until you reach a painted crosswalk.

Cross to the right side of the road at the crosswalk. Directly ahead, you will see a yellow “pedestrian access” sign that directs you behind the retaining wall, through the plaza, and toward the Building 59 Shyh Wang Hall entrance. The entrance is secured, so your host will meet you at the door and escort you inside.

The closest parking area that usually has spaces is Lot E, next to Building 88. To get there, take a sharp left turn immediately after entering Blackberry Gate. 

Accessible parking is also available to those with valid handicapped parking placards or plates issued by any state.

From Building 88, walk back to the main road and follow it up the hill. Cross at the second crosswalk at the intersection of Chu Road and Perlmutter Road. Walk up the hill on Perlmutter Road. Use the white-painted cross-hatched pathway on the left of the road until you reach a painted crosswalk.

Cross to the right side of the road at the crosswalk. Directly ahead, you will see a yellow “pedestrian access” sign that directs you behind the retaining wall, through the plaza, and toward the Building 59/Shyh Wang Hall entrance, which has an overhang. 

For the safety of everyone on campus, including our plentiful wildlife, please observe Berkeley Lab’s campus-wide 15 mph speed limit.

After you enter Blackberry Gate, follow the main road until just after the first curve and take that right turn onto Perlmutter Road. At the retaining wall marked Shyh Wang Hall, dismount and walk your bike or scooter along the pedestrian path (marked with a yellow sign) behind the retaining wall and onto the Building 59 / Wang Hall plaza.

Against the building to your right, there are bike racks where you may lock up your scooter or bicycle. Please do not lock bikes, scooters, or similar conveyances to fences, signposts, or anything other than designated bike racks.

Continue along the pedestrian path through the plaza to the building entrance under an overhang.