Sacramento Business Journal: New $210 million bridge over Sacramento River will be first of its kind

The design for the first new bridge in Sacramento in more than 50 years has been revealed.

At a news conference Friday morning, U.S. Rep. Doris Matsui literally unveiled a model of the new bridge, based on the earlier “spring” concept.

“We didn’t just want to put a bridge across the river,” she said. “It means more than that.”

Matsui called the design “a modern, iconic structure that will define our region for the next century.”

After an extensive public input and design process last year, a selection committee, including Matsui, West Sacramento Mayor Christopher Cabaldon, West Sacramento City Councilman Chris Ledesma, and Sacramento City Councilmen Steve Hansen and Jeff Harris, decided on the final design from four options.

“The clean lines, the unique vantage points and the user experience are unmatched,” Matsui said.

The design is expected to cost $210 million. At the news conference, Matsui said 88% of the funding will come from federal sources.

Earlier in the process, bridge proponents were concerned about how much state and federal money could go toward the project.

“Transportation funds don’t fund civic icons, they fund bridges,” Sacramento Project Manager Jesse Gothan told the Business Journal in October.

San Francisco-based T.Y. Lin International Group is the architect on the project.

The firm’s lead bridge architect Noel Shamble said at the event that this bridge will be unique.

“It is a lift bridge and an arch bridge combined together, which is the first of its kind in the world," he said.

A lift bridge is one where the road deck lifts straight up to allow boat traffic underneath, like the Tower Bridge. The deck of Tower Bridge is around 200 feet long, while the deck of the new bridge will be 300 feet. The design team found a way to use aluminum in the construction process to minimize the weight of the bridge and make the towers smaller than originally designed. Now, they will stretch up just 100 feet.

Engineering and design work is scheduled to run through 2020. Construction could begin in 2021 and finish in 2025.

The bridge would connect C Street in West Sacramento to Railyards Boulevard in Sacramento, and have walkways for pedestrians, buffered bike lanes and three lanes for vehicle or potential light rail traffic.

“It’s not just pedestrian friendly,” Ledesma said at the event. “It’s pedestrian encouraging.”

Vehicle traffic will use the new bridge instead of the existing I Street Bridge, which was built more than 100 years ago and is used for train traffic.

The lower deck of the existing bridge will still be used for trains, but the upper deck can be turned into a pedestrian walkway.

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