$27 Million ‘Bridge to Nowhere' Goes Up

The final span completing the two sides of what critics call the "bridge to nowhere" was lifted into place this week.

The 500-foot pedestrian bridge over Harbor Drive and the trolley tracks at Park Boulevard was installed in the wee hours of Tuesday morning. The span will be one of the "longest self-anchored pedestrian suspension spans in the world," the San Diego Union-Tribune reported. The bridge's existing steel and wood skeleton will now be transformed into bridge's final design, and cabling be added.

In February of 2005 when the project was originally conceived, the cost was estimated at $8.6 million, an official with CCDC said. A year later, as 60 percent of the drawings were completed, that price had risen to $14.9 million. When 95 percent of the design had been completed, the cost jumped to $17.6 million. The price tag swelled to nearly $27 million. The paper reported that more than $11 million of the total is being forked over by the city's redevelopment agency.

The bridge will connect the city's East Village and Petco Park with the convention center, a 2,200-vehicle parking garage, the Hilton Hotel and the Embarcadero to the west. Critics argue that the foot traffic and the ability to reopen Harbor Drive at Park Boulevard did not justify the bridge's price tag.

The Center City Development Corporation has a live Web cam monitoring the structure's construction.
 

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