New Sacramento bridge built so badly that it needs to be torn down, city says
SACRAMENTO — A new multi-million dollar bridge was supposed to make it safer for people to walk or bike between Land Park and the Sacramento River, but now it's the bridge itself that is creating a potentially dangerous situation.
Barricaded and off-limits to the public, this brand-new bridge is a key part of Sacramento's Del Rio bike and pedestrian trail, but the city says the concrete crossing over Interstate 5 is not safe.
"It's kind of sad when you expect to ride your family on the bike and you want to go down all the way to the river, boom it stops you right there," said Kristina Rogers, the president of the Land Park Neighborhood Association.
Now, Sacramento public works officials say it was so badly built that it needs to be torn down.
"The city is doing the right thing to essentially keep the public safe," structural engineer Kit Miyamoto said.
Miyamoto has been a structural engineer for more than 30 years and says demolishing the bridge is the safest action.
"Essentially, the city is saying the way the contractor built part of the bridge, it can be very dangerous," he said. "It can collapse."
In a letter obtained by CBS13, the city says the bridge builder, Mountain Methods, Inc., used unapproved "lightweight concrete and rebar."
Miyamoto said that using the wrong construction material can lead to disaster.
"Without the proper amount of concrete or rebar, structure systems can be very dangerous," he said. "That's why it's being shut down like that."
So what could happen if the bridge is not torn down and replaced?
"You're going to see the cracks on the concrete surfaces or you could see excessive deformation, which is movement of the structure," Miyamoto said.
He also said that these types of bridge-building blunders are rare.
"I have never heard of anything like it, especially if the city is talking both about concrete and rebar that are deficient," Miyamoto said.
Neighbors now want someone to take responsibility for fixing this bridge and getting the full trail open to the public.
"I would say, ultimately, it falls on the city as a whole and it falls on the people who are in charge of the project," Rogers said.
We reached out to the bridge builder for comment but so far, no one has responded. The City of Sacramento is not answering questions about how much demolition could cost, who will pay and how long that will take.