WEST SACRAMENTO, CA (MPG) - Three West Sacramento government officials began digging to signal the Groundbreaking Ceremony for the construction of the new bicycle and pedestrian bridge over Highway 50. City Councilmember Verna Sculpizio, Mayor Pro Tem Quirina Orozco and Mayor Martha Guerrero employed shovels to perform the initial spadework for the long-anticipated project that has an estimated completion time of summer 2024.

West Sacramento Mayor Pro Tem Quirina Orozco has often been involved in park projects in the West Sacramento neighborhoods of Broderick and Bryte. The new bridge will be the next phase of the ongoing Sycamore Trail Project, which will extend from Rice Avenue near the train tracks to Nugget Market and the Southport Town Center.

According to Christian Asuncion, West Sacramento Capital Projects Engineer, the new bike and pedestrian bridge will link the trail head located off of Evergreen Road, just South of Joey Lopes Park, over the Highway and down into the parking lot of the old River City High School location south of Highway 50. 

Blake Johnson, General Manager of Reclamation District 900, said, “irrigation issues don’t appear to be a problem” and construction of the new bridge will be on track for completion a year from this coming August.

Vice Mayor Orozco describes the bridge construction as a “moment of hope” for parents living in West Sacramento who will be able to let their children ride their bicycles to school. Completion of the entire stretch of Sycamore trail, she says, will offer a safe route for children to walk or to use a bicycle. She also spoke of the anticipation that pedestrian and bicycle travel will reduce the number of automobile trips. Human powered transportation, she explains, will eventually reduce the amount of air pollution in the area.

City leaders expressed their optimism that the bridge project will promote the completion of work on earlier phases of the Sycamore Trail project, as the area between West Capitol Avenue and Rice Avenue still requires attention that includes broken fencing and landscaping along the trail leading to the railroad tracks. Jason Puopolo, Parks Operations Superintendent for the City of West Sacramento, describes the work on the early phase of the bicycle and pedestrian trail may not be completed until 2025.

Despite uncertainty about the final completion date for the entire length of Sycamore Trail, the bicycle and pedestrian route will offer a safer, more direct route from the North to the South part of town.