Burdened bridges
Worsening traffic flow at river crossings spurs calls for new spans
By Tony Bizjak - Bee Staff Writer
Monday, May 7, 2007
One in an occasional series on Sacramento's transportation future
Dustin Teichman's recent move to West Sacramento from Davis had been easy street.
The price was right on his stylish tri-level condo. He's energized by the urban lifestyle. And work in downtown Sacramento is just three miles away.
The problem is, a river runs through his commute, and there is no good way to cross it.
The nearest bridge is a major interstate freeway crossroads where commercial trucks, commuters from distant cities, and short-distance drivers jostle daily for limited lane space.
Some days, Teichman can't get to his exit. The commute, at its worst, can hit a half-hour.
"It's more complicated than it needs to be," he has concluded.
Teichman's troubles are not unusual in River City. As the Sacramento region grows, hundreds of thousands of drivers, bus riders, cyclists and pedestrians are becoming familiar with the old admonishment, "You can't get there from here," at least not directly.
The Sunrise Boulevard bridge over the American River is a notorious bottleneck. Old Fifth Street Bridge connecting Marysville and Yuba City is overwhelmed. Fast-growing Folsom, which added a bridge in 1999, is again gridlocked. And the Yolo Causeway is straining, with worse to come.
With 1.4 million vehicles funneling through each day, river crossings have become the worst traffic choke points of the area's transportation system.
By 2027, daily vehicle numbers will jump to 2 million, according to projections from the region's transportation planning agency, the Sacramento Area Council of Governments.
Given that forecast, transportation leaders are saying the question no longer is whether we should bulk up our river crossings. The question is where should we do it, how quickly, and what kind of bridges? Should they be designed for cars, or for buses, light rail and bikes?
"We need to face the reality ... of widening some bridges and, in selected cases, building new bridges," SACOG director Mike McKeever said.
McKeever and SACOG, which is putting together a proposal this month for suggested transportation projects in the six-county region, know they're wading in neck-deep by posing the bridge question.
Bridges are costly, sometimes ugly, and political opposition can be intense and emotional.
That's especially true along the American River Parkway, where for many the idea of building concrete, car-laden structures is akin to slashing a knife across a Rembrandt.
"Our basically philosophy is, 'Don't build new bridges,' " says Frank Cirill of the Save the American River Association.
But now the bridge debate comes with a new twist: SACOG officials argue that building or widening bridges can be environmentally friendly.
If a bridge in an existing urban area gives commuters shorter routes and encourages neighborhood residents to walk, bike or use transit more, it can save gas and ease freeway congestion, planners say.
That sounds good in theory, some activists and environmentalists say. But bridges built mainly for cars are going to encourage more driving and clog nearby neighborhoods.
That argument is in play right now on the Sacramento River, where West Sacramento and Sacramento plan to redevelop their waterfronts into lively and dense urban enclaves.
The two cities are teaming to study the first new bridge between them in generations -- from Broadway, just south of downtown, to South River Road in West Sacramento.
"You don't find a vibrant urban river area in the country with as few crossings as we have," West Sacramento Mayor Christopher Cabaldon said.
Downtown Sacramento now is served by six bridges spread over six miles on two rivers, four of which are elevated freeways. By comparison, downtown Portland has eight bridges in half that distance. Austin, Texas, has eight bridges in a four-mile stretch.
Sacramento Mayor Heather Fargo envisions a Broadway Bridge that's a conduit for cultural and economic cross-pollination.
"It'll bring more people to eat at 40-plus restaurants and to the Tower Theatre," she said. But, "it has to be built on the same scale as Tower Bridge, walkable and friendly."
State Department of Transportation officials embrace the Broadway Bridge idea, because it will take short-distance commuters off the freeway. Teichman, whose West Sacramento condominium is on the river, is pleased as well.
"If that bridge is there, anybody who lives here and works downtown would take it," he said.
It would mean avoiding the quarter-mile lineup of cars that sometimes forms on Jefferson Boulevard blocking the bike lane while waiting to get onto the freeway.
Teichman's strategy often is to skip the freeway and head north. With the Tower Bridge now under construction, he sometimes ends up crossing the I Street Bridge. "You're always trying to find new paths that are quicker because the ones that make sense are slow."
A group of Land Park residents in Sacramento opposes the Broadway Bridge, complaining that each day it will funnel 16,000 cars through residential neighborhoods around downtown.
"They're defaulting to a car solution without consideration of transit," complained James Randlett of the Land Park Community Association.
Documents for the bridge list a "potential future streetcar," but Randlett's group argues the two cities need to seriously study transit possibilities now.
The Broadway Bridge is one of several new spans or bridge widening projects local leaders will consider this summer.
Also proposed:
• Expanding the Fifth and 10th Street bridges between Marysville and Yuba City, and eventually adding a third bridge there over the Feather River.
• Adding a fourth bridge in the city of Folsom at the Oak Avenue Parkway. A third bridge near Folsom Dam already is under construction.
• Planners also suggest at some point widening the Yolo Causeway by adding carpool lanes, and building a new bridge for bicyclists.
• Widened bridges at Howe and Hazel avenues, both of which would go from four to six lanes.
Notably absent is any new American River crossing between Sunrise and Watt avenues, which would more directly connect residences in Carmichael with jobs in Rancho Cordova.
Many residents in that area, as well as environmentalists, strongly oppose a new bridge. SACOG officials instead say more lanes on the Howe and Hazel crossings should ease the strain on the Watt and Sunrise bridges. Improvements at nearby intersections and freeway interchanges may also speed the cross-river flow, they said.
Environmentalist Ann Kohl of Sierra Oaks Vista said she and others are open to discussing an express bus-only bridge over the river, possibly by widening the Goethe Park bike and pedestrian bridge.
"No cars, though," Kohl said.
Not all bridges in Sacramento are controversial. The huge new Folsom Dam bridge, being built through a wildland gorge near Folsom Dam, drew hardly a whisper of opposition. Instead, it was greeted with cheers from local officials and commuters.
Controversy, however, is looming in Natomas.
SACOG planners are asking residents and local leaders to consider building a full-service bridge -- for cars, light rail, pedestrians and bikes -- spanning the American River and Discovery Park. It would connect Natomas with downtown Sacramento.
Traffic data shows Interstate 5 over the American River -- a main route to the airport -- is the most traveled bridge in the region and on its way to becoming the region's worst choke point.
Opponents say allowing cars on a new bridge could create a cut-through commute problem on neighborhood streets in Natomas.
Regional Transit officials, meanwhile, plan their own bridge there for light rail, bikes and pedestrians only -- not cars.
Mayor Fargo suggests taking the Natomas bridge discussion in a different direction: Why not just elevate nearby Northgate Boulevard so that it no longer floods in winter?
Commuter Gavin Payne will be an interested observer of that debate.
Payne, who lives in Davis and works in downtown Sacramento, often avoids the direct Yolo Causeway route by going "the back way," north on a farm road to Woodland, then back down Interstate 5 to downtown.
It's longer, Payne said, but it allows a steadier pace. He would welcome a new bridge of some type as well as more transit.
"Anything that relieves pressure is worth looking at," Payne said. "In fact, it's appreciated."
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