Year: 2022

By Beki San Marin

Richmond, CA December 8, 2022 – It’s Bridge Week in Richmond and through Saturday, people can attend events that showcase the proposed Richmond Greenway Bridge over 23rd Street, a project that would close the Greenway trail’s remaining gap, providing an uninterrupted 17-mile biking and walking path from Berkeley to Marin County.

The proposal grew out of the Richmond Greenway Gap Study, which was funded by a $280,000 grant from the California Department of Transportation.

“It’s going to blow everyone’s minds. It’s going to be really cool!,” said Catherine Waller, an artist and West Contra Costa resident who attended Monday’s Bridge Week kickoff at Armistice Brewing Co.

The weeklong series of events is hosted by Pogo Park, a Richmond-based organization that works to rebuild city parks. Pogo Park collaborated with the city and Civic Well, a nonprofit that helps local governments implement sustainability projects, to carry out the study.

According to Patrick Phelan, infrastructure administrator in the Richmond Public Works Department, the project started in 2021 to close the final gap in the Richmond Greenway that divides the east and west portions of the trail. 

This is the first phase of the project. The next will be securing funding for construction, possibly from the Contra Costa Transportation Authority and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, among other entities. Toody Maher, Pogo Park’s executive director, said the bridge is expected to cost between $30 million and $40 million to design and build. 

The trail used to be railroad tracks, which were converted in the early 2000s to a Greenway. It is divided by Carlson Boulevard, railroad tracks, and BART tracks, forcing users to exit and travel over half a mile to get back on. Closing the gap will allow for uninterrupted travel from the East Bay, across the San Francisco Bay, to Marin County. 

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Richmond, CA December 1, 2022 – Iron Triangle-based nonprofit Pogo Park is unveiling the conceptual design for a new bicycle and pedestrian bridge on the Richmond Greenway that would cross over 23rd Street, the Union Pacific railroad tracks and Carlson Boulevard, closing a significant trail gap.

The design will be unveiled during “Bridge Week,” a series of public events from Dec. 5-10 in Richmond, according to Pogo Park.

Donald MacDonald Architects, which creates award-winning bridges around the world, including the new eastern span of the Bay Bridge, has worked with hundreds of Richmond residents and key stakeholders over the past 18 months to create the proposed design for the 23rd Street Bridge Project. Funding to plan, design and develop the bridge concept came from an Environmental Justice grant.

The design is inspired by the shape of an osprey diving into the water. The osprey is Richmond’s official bird. Pogo Park says the design delivers on community requests for a unique, iconic bridge that puts Richmond on the map.

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Richmond, CA March 29, 2022 – For years it’s been a dream of many to connect the Eastern and Western sides of the Greenway at 23rd Street. To continue traveling on the Greenway, you have to go under a dangerous overpass and walk through a confusing set of city streets to get to the other side.

The City of Richmond and a team of partners secured an Environmental justice grant from Caltrans to plan, design and develop a concept for a bridge across 23rd Street that would close the Greenway Gap.

We invite you to attend the Greenway Gap Community Planning and Design event on April 12, 13 and 14.

For information about attending this event read the flyer linked here.

By Cathy Chouteau

Richmond, CA March 8, 2022 — The City of Richmond has been awarded $10 million in grant funding from the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) Clean California Local Grant Program to fund several efforts to improve city parks and roads, City officials announced today.

The program funding will allocate $5 million to the Richmond Communities Clean Collaborative and nearly $5 million to the Yellow Brick Road: Clean, Green and Beautiful project.