Fifth and Sixth street bridges nearing completion
by Brandon Darnell, published on December 2, 2010 at 5:11PM
The two city-funded bridges under construction in the railyards are scheduled to be completed next month.
The bridges will make Fifth and Sixth streets continuous where they are currently cut off by the railyards just east of the Amtrak station downtown.
“The bridges will be for both vehicle traffic and pedestrians,” said Linda Tucker, spokeswoman for the Sacramento Department of Transportation.
The transition of much of the railyards property from Thomas Enterprises to Inland American Real Estate Trust, Inc. following Thomas Enterprises’ defaulting on loans will not affect the bridge construction, since they are on city-owned land, according to Tucker.
When it comes to the track realignment necessary for trains to be able to pass under the bridges, there are still some possible kinks to work out.
“We are continuing to work out with Inland the transfer of agreements,” Tucker said. “My understanding is that we will be doing some joint announcements in a couple of weeks just to update the community on what’s been worked out.”
The $9 million bridge project is fully funded, as is the estimated $50 million track realignment.
The track realignment project will be opened for bidding in January, Tucker said.
“We are looking forward to moving ahead,” she said. “It’s been a bit exhausting going through the transition, and I think everyone – City Hall as well as the community – is looking forward to seeing more work going on out there.”
The blue square on the map above shows the Fifth and Sixth street bridges. The red square is intersection of F and Seventh streets for reference.
Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.
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