Sacramento has proposed a bridge to nowhere, with only half the money to build it | Opinion
There has been talk in Sacramento of replacing the antiquated I Street Bridge over the Sacramento River for about a quarter century. Yet despite fancy renderings of a modern bridge and local hopes of real progress next year, we are on a path to merely dreaming of this new bridge as a yawning budget gap shows no signs of closure.
For a river city with multiple spans over its two signature waterways, the Sacramento and American rivers, failure to fix old bridges or build new ones poses a threat to the urban core and regional mobility. And while it is saying very little publicly, it appears that the California Department of Transportation is over-extended with its bridge-building needs and a cash-strapped city is in no position to fill the financial breach.
The basic numbers: What was once believed to be a $250 million bridge is now closer to $360 million. And while Caltrans was envisioned to come up with nearly 90% of the money, it says it now has only $188 million set aside to to construct this project.
The longer we merely talk about bridges around here, the more they would eventually cost, which decreases the chances of them ever actually happening.
“There are other Caltrans state priorities,” said Sacramento Mayor Kevin McCarty in a recent interview. “We have to make our case that this is a high priority as far as safety, as far as connectivity with the region.”
The I Street bridge has been a steady workhouse, with two tracks for trains and above, two lanes for cars providing safe passage for 114 years. But with its dangerously narrow car lines and sidewalks, it has been an impediment to greater mobility for decades.
Designed after years of civic debate, a new three-lane I Street bridge would serve cars, bicyclists and pedestrians, built north of the existing bridge. It would connect West Sacramento directly to Sacramento’s soon-to-boom Railyards district. Kaiser Permanente has already broken ground on a 310-bed hospital complex in the district. And the new owners of the Sacramento Republic soccer team, the Wilton Rancheria, has plans to build a 12,000-seat stadium just down the street as well.
But if government documents are to be believed, there is no outward signs of either the city or Caltrans of finding the money to build the I Street Bridge any time soon, if ever.
In Caltrans latest five-year plan, it shows zero additional funds being dedicated to the project.
In the city’s five-year capital improvement plan, it also reveals no plan to squirrel away more money to fund the unknown local share of the project. This kind of non-budgeting is part of a much broader financial problem facing Sacramento. When it comes to finding money to do new things, the city is functionally broke. It has, for example, a $1.4 billion backlog of maintenance and infrastructure needs. It doesn’t have a penny of extra money hanging around, much less $100 million.
Behind these bleak-looking official plans, however, is a political dispute over who is to pay what.
Sacramento wants to hold to a traditional federal formula. Congress delivers nearly 89% of a bridge replacement project, and the locals (West Sacramento and Sacramento) would pay the rest (if state funds aren’t around to help.) That’s the official line of both the city and George Hatamiya, a spokesperson for Sacramento Congresswoman Doris Matsui.
Caltrans’ view, however, isn’t so clear. “The amount of (federal) funding….to provide to this project is currently under review.,” the department said in a recent statement to The Bee. It took The Bee nearly a month for this transportation agency to give what is at best a partial on where this project stands.
Why is Caltrans fudging?
“The challenge is that Caltrans has included more bridge projects…than they can fully fund, and they are exploring ways to reduce their financial obligations,” said city spokesperson Gabby Miller. The city was hoping to start the project next year even though more local money isn’t being set aside. “We cannot finalize the amount of local funding without the final (Caltrans) number,” Miller said.
A few weeks back, the City Council spent a night of the interested public’s time on how to design yet another new bridge, this one connecting the Railyards with South Natomas with some new span over the American River at Truxel Road.
Yet at the current pace, a replacement I Street Bridge is not going to get built in my lifetime. A Truxel Bridge, maybe not in my children’s lifetime. And in the short-run, we have a president who may withhold federal funding for Sacramento because we have long been a sanctuary city that fights deportations.
It’s great for a city to dream. But it’s equally important for Sacramento get real.
There is no full-court political campaign to get Caltrans to deliver. And that’s what it is going to take. Downtown interests didn’t talk about this bridge problem when they recently met for their annual gathering. It’s not a topic at City Council meetings. It’s as if everyone is pretending that this bridge is actually about to happen, when it’s not.
A drive on the tight lanes of I Street bridge is like a trek into yesteryear. We’re nowhere near ready to build what our future desperately needs.
This story was originally published March 18, 2025 at 7:00 AM with the headline "Sacramento has proposed a bridge to nowhere, with only half the money to build it | Opinion."