Sacramento’s planned new bridge has style ... and attitude. Check out these renderings
Sacramento and West Sacramento unveiled the final design Friday for a proposed new — and quite modern — bridge over the Sacramento River.
It’s called “The Spring.”
The renderings highlight a slim, white span with four curving columns that house the mechanisms to raise the deck for passing ships. The twin center arches look a bit like an eye gazing over the river, and each curves inward toward the other over the roadway to offer a cathedral-like feel. At night, that eyelid is bathed in a thin stream of light and the glass portions of the columns glow in gold.
What do you think?
If the boxy and muscular Tower Bridge nearby speaks of Sacramento’s industrial past, what does the curvy new bridge say about the two cities today? Will it join its sibling bridge in the pantheon of notable downtown architecture, along with the state Capitol building, West Sacramento’s Barn, the Railyard’s locomotive shops and Golden 1 Center?
Share your thoughts in the comments at the end of the story.
The estimated $210 million span will link West Sacramento’s growing waterfront live-work district with the Sacramento railyard development area, where Kaiser Permanente soon will build a medical complex and where a 20,000-seat major league soccer stadium will begin rising this summer.
The main architect is Noel Shamble of San Francisco-based T.Y. Lin International Group.
Shamble said the bridge’s flowing curvilinear feel is designed to mesh with the river below. The sitting areas on the bridge as away from the traffic, and allow people to ponder the river “almost like the river is on stage.”
Working with a local advisory group, Shamble switched materials for the center span to aluminum, allowing for a lighter span with a thinner, sleek look. The bridge’s sub-roadway under structure is being designed to create nesting space for bats and Purple martin birds that live along that stretch of the river.
The new span, expected to begin construction in two years, will replace the existing I Street Bridge and will be designed to handle cars, pedestrians and bicyclists. It will have a sitting areas in the central section.
Some sections of the wide walkways are made of clear glass, offering a fun, or maybe vertiginous, view of the river underfoot, similar to the Sundial Bridge in Redding.
The I Street Bridge will however remain in place as a railroad crossing. Its current elevated roadway may be turned into a pedestrian space, city officials said.
The bridge design was chosen by a committee that reviewed nine designs, and took public comments at various design workshops.
The creative nature of the bridge design process touched a nerve in Sacramento, where many freeway bridges are formulaic. Some 3,000 people responded to an online survey.
Sacramento Congresswoman Doris Matsui called the bridge “cohesive,” saying to will help better connect the two downtown cities.
“For over a year now, we have worked collaboratively between our two great cities, Sacramento and West Sacramento, to put forward a one-of-a-kind bridge design that will serve as an icon for our region,” Matsui said. “The reimagined I Street Bridge is representative of our unified spirit and shared history.
“As we look ahead to the future, new developments are going to change the landscape of California’s capital and this modern design will allow the bridge to grow with us. Our bold new bridge will create an unmatched experience for commuters and visitors alike.”
Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg predicted the bridge will be a landmark.
“This is an exciting step for the city as we move on to the next stage of building the new I Street Bridge,” Steinberg said. “This strikingly modern design will make the new bridge an instant landmark and an important piece of our redesigned waterfront.”
This story was originally published February 21, 2020 at 9:25 AM.