There’s big trouble with the bike and railroad bridge that crosses Interstate 5 and Riverside Boulevard near Sutterville Road. Here’s how the city tried to hide the story.
Word spread this summer over concerns with concrete that holds the new bridge together. It’s hard to keep everyone quiet about potentially inferior concrete on a bridge above an interstate.
Call them desperate, duplicitous or naïve. But authorities at City Hall figured they could bury the facts and cover up the details.
City officials stonewalled my questions about the bridge, a high-profile structure that arches over the freeway and connects the new Del Rio Trail with the Sacramento River Parkway bike path.
City spokesperson Gabby Miller told me: “The city is currently assessing the work performed by the contractor and will provide updated information at the appropriate time.”
I’ve heard hundreds of deflections over the decades. This stands tall among the worst. The “appropriate time” brushoff elevated the bridge story to No. 1 on my journalistic priority hit list.
The city wasn’t finished. It blundered into full-coverup mode when my friend Jim Geary, a retired lawyer who enjoys bike trails and running paths in Pocket and Land Park, emailed City Hall with a public records request for the bridge.
Geary sought documents, contracts, emails and texts—a routine request under the California Public Records Act. The city responded in 48 hours—warp speed—but said it was instantly closing his inquiry. No documents.
The city pointed Geary to a website that explained while the bridge “may look finished, there’s additional testing that needs to take place which can be a lengthy process.”
The dismissal left Geary stunned into rare silence. “I’ve made probably 30 public record requests in the last dozen years, and I’ve never seen anything like this,” he says.
A day later, the city “reopened” Geary’s request. He promised to save anything worthwhile for future columns.
Del Rio Trail runs 4.8 miles from the I-5 bridge to Bill Conlin Youth Sports Complex on Freeport Boulevard. Del Rio opened in May. It cost $23 million.
The I-5 bridge is a gateway. It connects two ambitious bike paths, celebrates the region’s agriculture history and crosses California’s quintessential interstate.
But like me and Jim Geary, many people suspected there was something wrong. Rumors about inferior concrete took flight.
Speculation swirled around lampblack added to new concrete on the bridge’s bike and pedestrian addition. Too much lampblack can weaken concrete. This might explain the “additional testing that needs to take place.”
The bridge over I-5 and Riverside is really two bridges, old and new. The original railroad bridge was built 50 years ago with the freeway. It’s doing fine.
The interstate required realignment of the Walnut Grove Branch Line of Southern Pacific, a train that carried ag products north through the Delta from 1912 into the 1970s.
Del Rio Trail follows the branch line behind homes in Land Park, South Land Park, Freeport Manor and Meadowview. Large sections of track remain as historical artifacts.
When Del Rio was planned, California State Parks officials wanted the option to run excursion trains from Old Sacramento to Land Park’s zoo. The rail bridge and tracks were incorporated into Del Rio’s design.
In the last two years, a new bridge for bikes and pedestrians rose alongside the train bridge. The bridges present as one structure, but two spans exist, new and old.
When Del Rio opened, enthusiasts such as Jim Geary expected the removal of construction materials that formed the new bike bridge over I-5. But the timbers stayed up.
“The bridge was obviously finished,” Geary says. “Then one day, they put fences back up on the trail portion of the new bike bridge. They clearly don’t want anyone up there.”
We understand. Litigation beckons. City Attorney Susana Alcala Wood no doubt demanded silence.
But a civic embarrassment looms across I-5. Rather than say “we’re fighting for everyone’s safety,” the city hoped nobody would notice.
R.E. Graswich can be reached at regraswich@icloud.com. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram: @insidesacramento.
