Groundbreaking ceremony held for Shoal Creek pedestrian bridge

For artist renderings of the bridge, click

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By Elizabeth Marie Himchak

After more than a decade of planning and advocating, a pedestrian bridge over Ted Williams Parkway at Shoal Creek Drive will become a reality.

Members of the Shoal Creek Elementary community along with Carmel Mountain Ranch residents and representatives of Poway Unified School District plus city, state and federal government representatives attended a ground breaking ceremony Friday morning to mark the occasion.

The $4.5 million project, funded with more than $2 million in federal money and almost $2.5 million in local Transnet funds, will be built across the six-lane Ted Williams Parkway on the east side of its intersection with Shoal Creek Drive. Primary beneficiaries will be students who attend the nearby Shoal Creek Elementary, many of whom cross the street that has a daily traffic volume of more than 25,000 trips. The posted speed is 55 mph, reduced to 25 mph near the school.

Plans call for a 479.5-foot bridge with a north ramp of 71.6 feet and south ramp of 157.3 feet. It will be 10 feet wide with an 8-foot pedestrian clearance. The bridge is to have a stone facade, stained concrete with anti-graffiti coating and bronze plaques featuring the Carmel Mountain Ranch logo. Construction is to start this month, with an estimated completion in February 2014.

“This is a big day for the community,” said Assemblyman Brian Maienschein, who was a city councilman when parents at the school started the effort to make crossing the busy intersection safer. Maienschein said at the time his daughters, Taylin and Brenna, now students at Shoal Creek, had yet to be born.

Resident Troy Daum, who served as Shoal Creek Pedestrian Safety Committee chairman, said the group formed when his oldest child was a first-grader at Shoal Creek. This spring she will graduate from UCLA.

Early in the endeavor he said the need was highlighted when a vehicle was driven over the foot of a woman pushing a stroller. The child inside was thrown to the curb. “They are all well and (the boy) is graduating from high school this year,” Daum said.

Maienschein said safety improvements implemented in the early 2000s included “no turn on red” during school arrival and dismissal times, moving back the vehicle limit line so the crosswalk could be widened and changing the timing so pedestrians had more time to cross. But a feasibly study paid for with $25,000 from his office showed a bridge was needed and possible.

While his three children have not attended the school in years, Daum said he and other parents stayed with the project even though they were tempted to quit as bureaucracy and lack of funding kept the bridge from becoming reality.

“The story of what happened here is a story of hope for other communities and projects,” Daum said, praising former City Councilwoman Barbara Warden and Maienschein’s chief of staff Lance Witmondt for being among those who “gave us hope.”

He said the ultimate “ray of hope” came when a representative of former Congressman Duncan Hunter — the current congressman’s father — came to see the situation.

“This led to a federal earmark, which I understand are not available anymore (for new projects),” Daum said. “But this is the right kind, the important kind.”

Daum said if not for the Great Recession, the last needed funds might not have come through. But because of the years of work by the community, the shovel-ready project qualified for stimulus money.

“This is a story of the community working together,” Daum said. “The parents of Shoal Creek and the community leaders did not give up. ... This is a testament to that. Each of you made a difference in making this project happen. What a special day this is.”

“Truly this is a momentous day in this community,” said Tony Heinrichs, director of the city’s Public Works Department.

Heinrichs said 10 to 12 years is the “norm” for capital improvement projects to come to fruition even though some, like the bridge, “are paramount to the life and safety of school children.”

For that reason, city staff are working with the City Council’s new infrastructure committee led by City Councilman Mark Kersey to streamline the process so projects can be completed faster.

Kersey said the committee is working on a five-year plan that includes setting priorities so projects that improve residents’ lives can be completed quicker.

Heinrichs said it will be a “state of the art structure” and “very high quality project when finished.”

Shoal Creek Principal Libby Keller called the ground breaking “a great day for us” and said “students are excited about the prospect of the bridge being built.”