Council Scraps Plan for Pedestrian Bridge

A pedestrian bridge over California 126 in Ventura will not be built, even though city staff had spent almost a decade securing all but about $400,000 needed for the $2-million project.

The City Council made the decision to abandon plans to construct the 210-foot-long bridge for bicyclists and pedestrians after four hours of discussion at its Monday night meeting.

The rationale for killing the freeway span from Camino Real Park to a future housing development had little to do with safety, said traffic engineer Nazir Lalani.

“The testimony from the people against was we don’t want to get all these people into our neighborhood and cause crime,” he said. “We’ve had a number of incidents of kids reported as dashing across the median and almost getting hit.”

The closest freeway crossings to the proposed bridge are about a mile away.