The Palm Avenue Bridge in Otay Mesa will undergo a major reconstruction thanks to $24 million in federal cash paid for in part by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act, officials announced Thursday.
The city of San Diego secured the money through a competitive grant process that also funded eight other projects across the country.
The roughly 50-year-old intersection, which spans Interstate 805 east of Imperial Beach, will receive several upgrades, including new sidewalks, bike lanes and bus stop bays. Among other improvements, the freeway ramps will also be redesigned.
Gloria made the announcement in Palm Ridge Park on Thursday, joined by community leaders and Andrew Rogers, deputy administrator of the Federal Highway Administration.
The project will also make the bridge more reliable, especially against earthquakes. It will modernize its sidewalks to make them accessible to people in wheelchairs as well as those who ride bicycles.
The project will reduce traffic delays for 38,000 vehicles, including 750 trucks that use the bridge daily, officials said. The savings for businesses and commuters will amount to tens of millions of dollars.
When completed, this bridge project will allow people and goods to have more options to get where they need to go and how they want to get there. The grant ensures that a bridge from the past continues to serve users today and future generations and maintains the integrity of our infrastructure needs.
The San Diego investment is part of $300 million in federal spending on bridge projects announced Thursday, from New York to Texas to Oregon. The U.S. Department of Transportation’s bridge investment program is expected to spend approximately $12.5 billion over five years, including $2.4 billion in federal funds.
The announcement comes on the heels of the completion of the new $148 million Mission Bay Bridge, which also received federal highway funding boosted by President Joe Biden’s $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill.
