Lloyd Lee/Palo Alto Weekly
Upload time: Saturday, November 20, 2021, 7:56 PM 6 Reading time: about 4 minutes
A new bicycle flyover was opened in Palo Alto on Saturday, with access to Baylands, the new Adobe Reach trail and other outdoor facilities throughout the year. Photo by Lloyd Lee.
When a coalition of bicycle groups, community members, city employees, and company representatives gathered on the East Belans side of the New Bridge on U.S. Highway 101, city, county, and state officials couldn’t help repeating what they had done before. A message in the speech. They opened the way by cutting the ribbon: finally.
"After a year and a half of construction, which included 13 million pounds of concrete, 1 million pounds of structural steel, and 7,000 feet of electrical and optical cables... we can now say with certainty that the bridge is tangible and real," Palo Alto Said Brad Eggleston, director of public works.
The new overpass will provide year-round access to Baylands, the new Adobe Reach trail and other outdoor facilities, and will open to a group of pedestrians and cyclists on Saturday the day after construction and cleaning are completed.
The bridge spans 1,400 feet in length, across the West Bay Road and East Bay Road platforms, and has a 12-foot-wide passage that replaces the Benjamin Lefkowitz underground passage. Due to seasonal flooding, the underground passage only lasts on average every year. Open for 6 months.
"I have been looking forward to this since last year," said Jeff Shusterman, a Mountain View resident and long-time biker, who took his bicycle to the event.
A new bicycle overpass opened in Palo Alto on Saturday and opened to a group of pedestrians and cyclists just one day after construction and cleaning were completed. Photo by Lloyd Lee.
Help maintain the local news you depend on.
Your contribution is important. Become a member today.
For former and current city council members, including former mayors Liz Kniss and Alison Cormack, who have come to witness the results of the city's ten-year work, this expectation is ten times greater.
He pointed out that Mayor Tom Dubois admitted in his speech that planning and fund-raising have been going on for many years-so much so that the bridge has gone through several city council transitions.
"We actually approved this four years ago, and next week, when we finally give it the final approval," Du Bois said on Saturday. "That was when we had nine board members."
For Eggleston, he recalled that when she was the mayor, Kniss, a staunch supporter of the project, called the overpass a "mythical bridge."
State Senator Josh Becker, D-Menlo Park, and Santa Clara County Supervisor Joe Simitian also shared their own anecdotes, jokingly about the 10-year timetable for the bridge. Simitian proposed to extend the time frame for another 10 years because the county provided a $5.5 million grant from the Stanford Entertainment Mitigation Fund in 2000.
The final price of Palo Alto’s new bicycle overpass was US$23.1 million, with funding from multiple sources including Google and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission. Photo by Lloyd Lee.
Send daily headlines directly to your inbox in our Express newsletter.
Send daily headlines directly to your inbox in our Express newsletter.
"You've heard that this is described as a 10-year effort," Simitian said. "What I want to say is that this is actually a 20-year effort, because these mitigation funds have been traced back to 2000, and they were reserved for purposes that were not yet determined at the time."
The final price of the bridge was 23.1 million U.S. dollars, which became a pain point for some residents and the editorial board of "Weekly". Funding came from multiple sources, including a $1 million grant from Google and an expected $4.35 million investment from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission’s Bay Area Grant Program.
In addition to higher-than-expected costs, some residents have also begun to view the bridge as another symbol of the bureaucratic nightmare that many developers are looking forward to in Palo Alto. In 2015, the city cancelled the designs of Moffatt and Nichol and eventually established a new company, Biggs Cardosa Associates Inc.
Even for Megha Bansal, who has been a senior engineer and bridge project manager in the city since 2015, some of these frustrations may be obvious. Recently, she had to deal with construction delays caused by material transportation problems and supply shortages caused by the pandemic.
"Before COVID, the only thing we did was clear vegetation," she said.
■ New investigation found hundreds of inhabited RVs parked on the streets of Mountain View
■ Storm swept across the Bay Area, and 4,000 Mountain View homes restored power
■ The survey found that nearly half of Bay Area employers expect a 3-day on-site work week after the pandemic
■ The school district’s Montaloma open space design focusing on the community
■ Why is California's unemployment rate the highest in the country?
■ New investigation found hundreds of inhabited RVs parked on the streets of Mountain View
■ Storm swept across the Bay Area, and 4,000 Mountain View homes restored power
But Bansal also stated that due to the multiple jurisdictions involved, the overpass brings many restrictions beyond the city. This was clearly shown to the participants in the Saturday ceremony. As part of the building fell on the company's property, representatives from the county, the California Department of Transportation, the Santa Clara Valley Water District, the Valley Department of Transportation, and even Google employees appeared.
"All agencies have these requirements," she said. "This is a cross-jurisdictional process."
In broad daylight, the most notable feature of this bridge is the rust-brown steel truss above the highway and Adobe Creek. Roy Schanbel, head of management of Biggs Cardosa, said the color can be attributed to self-weathering steel. He said the material will rust over time, forming a protective coating to prevent further rusting of the bridge.
"It should look like that, it should rust," Chambert said. "Very earthy."
The purpose of installing the LED lights of the new overpass is to reduce light pollution and avoid disturbing wildlife. Provided by the City of Palo Alto.
But at night, the frame of the bridge blends into the night sky, mostly in the form of interlaced faint spot lights. Eggleston said that the way the LED lights are installed is to reduce light pollution and avoid disturbing the surrounding wildlife. For example, LED lights point down the entire sidewalk, so they only illuminate the path of pedestrians or cyclists, but not anywhere else, Eggleston said.
The overpass will become a convenient entrance to South Palo Altans, but its use will definitely extend to residents throughout the Bay Area. Bicycle groups including Bike Palo Alto, Western Wheelers Bicycle Club and Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition all witnessed the opening on Saturday.
Diana Crumedy, a member of the Silicon Valley Cycling Alliance and a San Jose resident, described that after participating in a closed bicycle marathon or protecting it, “retraining” the brain not to be afraid of overtaking is always a spiritual feat. . bicycle lane. But with this new bridge, she and many other cyclists from San Jose will have a safe route in Palo Alto to look forward to.
"This is an opportunity for people to get the same experience-to feel the safety of riding a bicycle without worrying about being hit by a car," Krumidi said.
With the hustle and bustle of the opening ceremony and free ice cream, the bridge was crowded with pedestrians. Many cyclists have to resort to walking. Robert Neff, chairman of the Palo Alto Pedestrian and Bicycle Advisory Committee, said that the real test will be July 4, after the Mountain View fireworks show.
But as the afternoon approached, the crowds gradually receded, and the bridge became a peaceful destination for pedestrians to admire the beauty of Bellans and for cyclists to quickly cross the highway.
A toddler on a bicycle leads the way for his family—including the father and his daughter in the carriage in front—he walks along the entrance ramp from west to east. Even Cormac took advantage of the bridge on that Saturday and happily rode a bicycle down the bridge from east to west.
The front row seat of the local high school sports.
Check out our new newsletter Playbook.
Follow Mountain View Voice Online on Twitter @mvvoice, Facebook and Instagram @mvvoice for breaking news, local events, photos, videos and more.
Lloyd Lee/Palo Alto Weekly
Uploaded: Saturday, November 20, 2021, 7:56 PM As an alliance of cycling groups, community members, city employees, and company representatives, they gathered on the New Bridge East Baylands side of U.S. Highway 101, People from the city, county and state couldn't help repeating a message in their speech, and then they opened the way with a ribbon-cutting: finally. "After a year and a half of construction, which included 13 million pounds of concrete, 1 million pounds of structural steel, and 7,000 feet of electrical and optical cables... we can now say with certainty that the bridge is tangible and real," Palo Alto Said Brad Eggleston, director of public works. The new overpass will provide year-round access to Baylands, the new Adobe Reach trail and other outdoor facilities, and will open to a group of pedestrians and cyclists on Saturday the day after construction and cleaning are completed. The bridge spans 1,400 feet in length, across the West Bay Road and East Bay Road platforms, and has a 12-foot-wide passage that replaces the Benjamin Lefkowitz underground passage. Due to seasonal flooding, the underground passage only lasts on average every year. Open for 6 months. "I have been looking forward to this since last year," said Jeff Shusterman, a Mountain View resident and longtime biker, who took his bicycle to the event. For former and current city council members, including former mayors Liz Kniss and Alison Cormack, who came to witness the results of the city's ten-year work, this expectation is ten times greater. He pointed out that Mayor Tom Dubois admitted in his speech that planning and fund-raising have been going on for so many years-so much so that the bridge has gone through several city council transitions. "We actually approved this four years ago, and next week, when we finally give it the final approval," Du Bois said on Saturday. "That was when we had nine board members." For Eggleston, he recalled that when she was mayor, Kniss, a staunch supporter of the project, called the overpass a "mythical bridge." ". State Senator Josh Becker, D-Menlo Park, and Santa Clara County Supervisor Joe Simitian also shared their own anecdotes, jokingly about the 10-year timetable for the bridge. Simitian proposed to extend the time frame for another 10 years because the county provided a $5.5 million grant from the Stanford Entertainment Mitigation Fund in 2000. Say. "What I want to say is that this is actually a 20-year effort, because these mitigation funds go back to 2000, and they are reserved for purposes that have not yet been determined at the time." The final bid for the bridge was $23.1 million. This has become a pain point for some residents and the "Weekly" editorial board. Funding came from multiple sources, including a $1 million grant from Google and an expected $4.35 million investment from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission’s Bay Area Grant Program. In addition to higher-than-expected costs, some residents have also begun to view the bridge as another symbol of the bureaucratic nightmare that many developers are looking forward to in Palo Alto. In 2015, the city cancelled the designs of Moffatt and Nichol and eventually established a new company, Biggs Cardosa Associates Inc. Even for Megha Bansal, who has been a senior engineer and project manager in the city since 2015, some of the frustrations may be obvious. Recently, she had to deal with construction delays caused by material transportation problems and supply shortages caused by the pandemic. "Before COVID, the only thing we did was clear vegetation," she said. But Bansal also stated that due to the multiple jurisdictions involved, the overpass brings many restrictions beyond the city. This was clearly shown to the participants in the Saturday ceremony. As part of the building fell on the company's property, representatives from the county, the California Department of Transportation, the Santa Clara Valley Water District, the Valley Department of Transportation, and even Google employees appeared. "All agencies have these requirements," she said. "This is a cross-jurisdictional process." In broad daylight, the most distinctive feature of the bridge is the rust-brown steel truss above the highway and Adobe Creek. Roy Schanbel, head of management of Biggs Cardosa, said the color can be attributed to self-weathering steel. He said the material will rust over time, forming a protective coating to prevent further rusting of the bridge. "It should look like that, it should rust," Chambert said. "Very earthy." But at night, the frame of the bridge blends into the night sky, mostly in the form of interlaced faint spot lights. Eggleston said that the way the LED lights are installed is to reduce light pollution and avoid disturbing the surrounding wildlife. For example, LED lights point down the entire sidewalk, so they only illuminate the path of pedestrians or cyclists, but not anywhere else, Eggleston said. The overpass will become a convenient entrance to South Palo Altans, but its use will definitely extend to residents throughout the Bay Area. Bicycle groups including Bike Palo Alto, Western Wheelers Bicycle Club and Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition all witnessed the opening on Saturday. Diana Crumedy, a member of the Silicon Valley Cycling Alliance and a San Jose resident, described that after participating in a closed bicycle marathon or protecting it, “retraining” the brain not to be afraid of overtaking is always a spiritual feat. . bicycle lane. But with this new bridge, she and many other cyclists from San Jose will have a safe route in Palo Alto to look forward to. "This is an opportunity for people to get the same experience-to feel the safety of riding a bicycle without worrying about being hit by a car," Krumidi said. With the hustle and bustle of the opening ceremony and free ice cream, the bridge was crowded with pedestrians. Many cyclists have to resort to walking. Robert Neff, chairman of the Palo Alto Pedestrian and Bicycle Advisory Committee, said that the real test will be July 4, after the Mountain View fireworks show. But as the afternoon approached, the crowds gradually receded, and the bridge became a peaceful destination for pedestrians to admire the beauty of Bellans and for cyclists to quickly cross the highway. A toddler on a bicycle leads the way for his family—including the father and his daughter in the carriage in front—he walks along the entrance ramp from west to east. Even Cormac took advantage of the bridge on that Saturday and happily rode a bicycle down the bridge from east to west.
When a coalition of bicycle groups, community members, city employees, and company representatives gathered on the East Belans side of the New Bridge on U.S. Highway 101, city, county, and state officials couldn’t help repeating what they had done before. A message in the speech. They opened the way by cutting the ribbon: finally.
"After a year and a half of construction, which included 13 million pounds of concrete, 1 million pounds of structural steel, and 7,000 feet of electrical and optical cables... we can now say with certainty that the bridge is tangible and real," Palo Alto Said Brad Eggleston, director of public works.
The new overpass will provide year-round access to Baylands, the new Adobe Reach trail and other outdoor facilities, and will open to a group of pedestrians and cyclists on Saturday the day after construction and cleaning are completed.
The bridge spans 1,400 feet in length, across the West Bay Road and East Bay Road platforms, and has a 12-foot-wide passage that replaces the Benjamin Lefkowitz underground passage. Due to seasonal flooding, the underground passage only lasts on average every year. Open for 6 months.
"I have been looking forward to this since last year," said Jeff Shusterman, a Mountain View resident and long-time biker, who took his bicycle to the event.
For former and current city council members, including former mayors Liz Kniss and Alison Cormack, who have come to witness the results of the city's ten-year work, this expectation is ten times greater.
He pointed out that Mayor Tom Dubois admitted in his speech that planning and fund-raising have been going on for many years-so much so that the bridge has gone through several city council transitions.
"We actually approved this four years ago, and next week, when we finally give it the final approval," Du Bois said on Saturday. "That was when we had nine board members."
For Eggleston, he recalled that when she was the mayor, Kniss, a staunch supporter of the project, called the overpass a "mythical bridge."
State Senator Josh Becker, D-Menlo Park, and Santa Clara County Supervisor Joe Simitian also shared their own anecdotes, jokingly about the 10-year timetable for the bridge. Simitian proposed to extend the time frame for another 10 years because the county provided a $5.5 million grant from the Stanford Entertainment Mitigation Fund in 2000.
"You've heard that this is described as a 10-year effort," Simitian said. "What I want to say is that this is actually a 20-year effort, because these mitigation funds have been traced back to 2000, and they were reserved for purposes that were not yet determined at the time."
The final price of the bridge was 23.1 million U.S. dollars, which became a pain point for some residents and the editorial board of "Weekly". Funding came from multiple sources, including a $1 million grant from Google and an expected $4.35 million investment from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission’s Bay Area Grant Program.
In addition to higher-than-expected costs, some residents have also begun to view the bridge as another symbol of the bureaucratic nightmare that many developers are looking forward to in Palo Alto. In 2015, the city cancelled the designs of Moffatt and Nichol and eventually established a new company, Biggs Cardosa Associates Inc.
Even for Megha Bansal, who has been a senior engineer and bridge project manager in the city since 2015, some of these frustrations may be obvious. Recently, she had to deal with construction delays caused by material transportation problems and supply shortages caused by the pandemic.
"Before COVID, the only thing we did was clear vegetation," she said.
But Bansal also stated that due to the multiple jurisdictions involved, the overpass brings many restrictions beyond the city. This was clearly shown to the participants in the Saturday ceremony. As part of the building fell on the company's property, representatives from the county, the California Department of Transportation, the Santa Clara Valley Water District, the Valley Department of Transportation, and even Google employees appeared.
"All agencies have these requirements," she said. "This is a cross-jurisdictional process."
In broad daylight, the most notable feature of this bridge is the rust-brown steel truss above the highway and Adobe Creek. Roy Schanbel, head of management of Biggs Cardosa, said the color can be attributed to self-weathering steel. He said the material will rust over time, forming a protective coating to prevent further rusting of the bridge.
"It should look like that, it should rust," Chambert said. "Very earthy."
But at night, the frame of the bridge blends into the night sky, mostly in the form of interlaced faint spot lights. Eggleston said that the way the LED lights are installed is to reduce light pollution and avoid disturbing the surrounding wildlife. For example, LED lights point down the entire sidewalk, so they only illuminate the path of pedestrians or cyclists, but not anywhere else, Eggleston said.
The overpass will become a convenient entrance to South Palo Altans, but its use will definitely extend to residents throughout the Bay Area. Bicycle groups including Bike Palo Alto, Western Wheelers Bicycle Club and Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition all witnessed the opening on Saturday.
Diana Crumedy, a member of the Silicon Valley Cycling Alliance and a San Jose resident, described that after participating in a closed bicycle marathon or protecting it, “retraining” the brain not to be afraid of overtaking is always a spiritual feat. . bicycle lane. But with this new bridge, she and many other cyclists from San Jose will have a safe route in Palo Alto to look forward to.
"This is an opportunity for people to get the same experience-to feel the safety of riding a bicycle without worrying about being hit by a car," Krumidi said.
With the hustle and bustle of the opening ceremony and free ice cream, the bridge was crowded with pedestrians. Many cyclists have to resort to walking. Robert Neff, chairman of the Palo Alto Pedestrian and Bicycle Advisory Committee, said that the real test will be July 4, after the Mountain View fireworks show.
But as the afternoon approached, the crowds gradually receded, and the bridge became a peaceful destination for pedestrians to admire the beauty of Bellans and for cyclists to quickly cross the highway.
A toddler on a bicycle leads the way for his family—including the father and his daughter in the carriage in front—he walks along the entrance ramp from west to east. Even Cormac took advantage of the bridge on that Saturday and happily rode a bicycle down the bridge from east to west.
This looks great! Which highway exit is near? (How do I get there from Mountain View?)
@ Ellen Wheeler This is very close to the San Antonio Road exit. Stop on Terminal Boulevard, then walk into Palo Alto Baylands, head towards the pump house, then turn left onto Adobe Creek Loop Trail, then return to the highway. Turn right at Bayshore, then walk a few hundred feet, and you will reach the entrance of the new bridge.
@Nora S-Thanks! I appreciate how we use this forum to help our neighbors.
At last. After all so many years! ! Unfortunately, as early as when this project became the personal self-travel of former Palo Alto City Council members, we said that we needed an iconic bridge. Let us announce the design competition. We need a bridge, and people will know that they are clearly stated in Palo Alto. So there was a design competition, and the price of the bridge went up. Announce the winner. Then the council rejected the winner. Then another few years passed. Other cities can build simple bridges at low cost—not Palo Alto. I am very happy that it was completed and finally opened, despite the “efforts” of the committee members. We should name this bridge after her-The. ______. ______ Iconic design competition bridge.
Better late than never. But now Palo Alto needs to "repair" the East Meadow traffic circle, which forces cyclists to merge into the lane. East Meadow is my route to the New Bridge in Mountain View. In the past, East Meadow had ordinary bike lanes, but for some reason, these bike lanes were considered more dangerous than roundabouts. If this is true, why are there no more traffic circles? The city seems stubbornly insisting on not riding a bicycle. "Blood and flesh, steel is one"
expensive? Yes, but it's worth it, imo, if it allows more people to leave the car and enter nature by bike or on foot. I have used it twice in the three days it opened, and after decades of cycling in San Antonio, it will be my main entrance into the bay.
Don't miss the discussion! Sign up to be notified of new comments on this topic.
To encourage respectful and thoughtful discussions, registered users can comment on stories. If you are already a registered user and the comment form is not below, you need to log in. If you haven't registered yet, you can do it here.
Please make sure your comments are true, relevant to the subject, and don’t disrespect other posters. Don't be mean or belittle. All posts are subject to our terms of use and may be deleted if our employees think they are inappropriate.
Please refer to our announcement on requesting comments for registration.
Home News TownSquare Blog A&E Community Calendar Home Page and Real Estate Obituaries
Send news alerts, subscribe to the print edition/file express/weekend express, special bar circulation and delivery promotion
About Us Contact Us Advertising Information Terms of Use Privacy Policy Palo Alto Online Yearbook TheSixFifty.com
© 2021 Mountain View Online All rights reserved. Embarcadero Media PR MediaRelease Sponsored Content Mobile Site
© 2021 Mountain View Online. all rights reserved.