Maybe I was too harsh when I ridiculed the city for building a bicycle bridge across Interstate 5 with lousy concrete and misaligned rebar.
The bridge was a big screwup. But the city did right by residents when it told bridge contractors to jackhammer the new bridge and replace it with materials that meet spec and can stand for 75 years, as opposed to a decade or two.
The rebuilt bridge opened in December. This means the city managed to erect two bike bridges over I-5 and Riverside Boulevard in three years.
The first bridge was useless. The second bridge seems fine. We can assume the new concrete and rebar fit acceptable margins for error.
As city engineering projects go, two bridges in 40 months are a miracle.
I thought about this miracle the other day when contemplating how the public has waited 51 years for the city to finish an 8-mile bike trail on the Sacramento River levee through Pocket, Greenhaven and Little Pocket.
That’s 51 years and counting. The city still isn’t quite ready to start paving.
I don’t know anything about civil engineering. But I asked two civil engineers what was the more complicated job—building bridges over interstate freeways or paving a bike path?
The engineers laughed. They figured I already knew the answer.
They confirmed building a bridge over a freeway is trickier than laying down asphalt on a levee prepped, graded and covered with sub-base gravel.
They suggested even I could figure out how to pave the levee. They said I wouldn’t get far building a bridge.
The reason we’ve waited 51 years for the levee bike path has nothing to do with engineering. It’s politics.
From the late 1970s to the early 2000s, unpaved stretches of the Pocket levee were represented by two City Council members opposed to the bike path.
Their names were Lynn Robie and Robbie Waters. They were friendly with people living alongside the levee, people who fear the bike path will invite Peeping Toms and garden-hose thieves.
“It’s private property,” Waters used to tell me about the levee, though he knew the levee was and is state property.
Robbie Waters and Lynn Robie are dead. They can’t defend their positions. Another problem was the city let developers draw about 100 property lines over the levee and halfway across the river while subdividing Pocket farmland six decades ago.
The property lines are ridiculous. The public owns the riverbank, levee and river. But those fantasy lines inspire grievance and entitlement among a few property owners near the levee. The lines let residents raise dubious arguments about easement rights.
The public has suffered from these mistakes for 51 years. Some parkway sections are still fenced off.
Soon city officials will wipe out the absurd property lines, void any easement arguments via eminent domain, and finish paving the Pocket levee. Similar actions will follow in Little Pocket.
Once the levee is paved, the rebuilt bike bridge over I-5 will connect the river parkway with the Del Rio Trail through South Land Park. Cyclists can ride from Freeport to Discovery Park and onto Folsom.
I’m still mad at the city for covering up mistakes with the I-5 bike bridge. The city hasn’t produced every public document I asked for a year ago.
No doubt, the bridge contractors messed up. They poured the bridge deck with concrete mixed with more natural pozzolan than fly ash, weakening the structure. The city and Caltrans finally noticed—too late for the first bridge.
Now the second bridge is open. But guess what? The city isn’t finished with screwups.
City crews are ripping up 10 sections of the new Del Rio Trail for sewer repairs. The sewer is 65 years old. Repairs could have happened before the trail opened in 2024.
But then the city wouldn’t need to jackhammer a popular bike trail. Why build something new without a chance to rip it apart?
R.E. Graswich can be reached at regraswich@icloud.com. Follow us on Facebook, X and Instagram: @insidesacramento.
