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City News

Council Approves Funds for 65th Street Bicycle/Pedestrian Bridge Study

John VanLandingham
The Emeryville Connection Staff
May 2007

City Council members, on a split vote, decided on April 3 to rob Peter to pay Paul and end nine years of frustration on a bicycle-pedestrian bridge over Interstate 80 and Ashby Avenue.

The 3-1 vote, with Council member John Fricke dissenting and Vice Mayor Ruth Atkin absent, authorizes the staff to use up to $200,000 to study the feasibility of Emeryville building the bridge alone instead of with Berkeley and the state. That money had been earmarked for the study of a separate bridge on the city’s west side near Temescal Creek, a project supported by Fricke.

Caltrans has a plan to improve the I-80 interchange at Ashby and Shellmound avenues by building a series of roundabouts to control traffic. Included in this plan is a bike path that would be at street level. Cyclists using the trail would have to navigate the roundabouts and cross intersections via crosswalks, City Manager Patrick O’Keeffe said in a report to the council.

“This proposal has raised concerns about the safety of bicyclists crossing at the intersections with the roundabout system,” O’Keeffe said in the report.

After nine years of planning, the project remains $20 million short of the estimated $30 million needed to complete it, said Maurice Kaufman, interim public works director.

The question to the council was continue to wait on something to happen or go it alone and if so how?

City Manager Patrick O’Keeffe told the council that, because of the funding uncertainties, Emeryville probably should consider building a separate bridge for cyclist and pedestrians.

“This separate project would not preclude the interchange project but would be an option to pursue if the funding for the interchange does not come to fruition,” O’Keeffe said in a report.

A previous study prepared for the city estimated $12 million as the cost of the pedestrian-bicycle bridge. Already the city has spent $135,000 on studying the Ashby-Shellmound bridge, he said.

During a March 26 study session, Fricke proposed formal planning studies for the west side bridge as well as the Ashby-Shellmound bridge. That way the city would be better positioned to get money for a bridge in the event the interchange project is scrapped or delayed too long for Emeryville to act.

Fricke renewed his call for the Temescal bridge at the April 3 meeting but found no support. The consensus of his colleagues was the best option was a bridge in the vicinity of 65th and LaCoste streets and how to fund further studies of it was the question.

The recommendation was made to use the Temescal funds and get moving on something the city could accomplish in three to five years.

Fricke protested that move meant abandoning the Temescal bridge.

Mayor Nora Davis disputed the claim. “We gotta go with it. We aren’t abandoning Temescal; we’re just putting it down lower. Temescal won’t come for 15 years or more.”

Fricke made one last plea to study both, but Davis wouldn’t hear it. “First things first. We’ll take the money from Temescal,” she said.

John VanLandingham is a writer for The Emeryville Connection. If you have a question or comment, please contact him at ecocnews@gmail.com.