Cabrillo College’s damaged pedestrian walkway over Soquel Drive could be closed to pedestrians for a year or more.
A truck struck the bridge on Jan. 8 and severely damaged its structure – you’ve maybe looked up and noticed that the pedestrian walkway above looks like a crushed soda can.
“If everything went swimmingly, and it won’t, in the real world, the bridge would be down at least a year, minimally.. Perhaps much longer,” said Jon Salisbury, director of facilities planning and plant operations at Cabrillo.
The main concern with renovations is the structural engineering, Salisbury said, and the college won’t know the full extent until the forensic analysis is complete, which will also reveal additional causes for the damage.
“The bridge may potentially be repaired as is, taken down and replaced by a new bridge, or taken away entirely. And we don’t really have a sense of where we are in that yet… right now it’s just a lot of analysis,” Salisbury said.
The bridge was constructed around 1962 and was two-thirds of the way through its latest retrofit when the bridge was damaged. Salisbury said the bridge is part of the history of Cabrillo, and although they don’t yet know the estimated cost of repairs the insurance will likely settle out any costs.
“I guess if there’s any silver lining to it, we’re grateful that nobody was on the bridge at the time it was struck, so nobody was injured,” said Kristin Fabos, director of marketing and communications at Cabrillo. “We’re really just trying to put out some communications to students because with the bridge not there, the temptation is to jaywalk.”
The closure also affects groups who use the walkway to advertise events. Andrea Hart, artistic director of the Cabrillo Stage, says the theater department advertises plays on the walkway throughout the semester and through the summer. As an alternative, they’ve moved their banners to light poles. The impact of this advertisement is not the same.
“You can easily miss the light pole banners. They can be obstructed by trees, or you don’t notice them until you are flying by in your car.” said Hart. “But the banners on the walkway, you can see from a distance. You can look at them while you’re sitting at the light. The number of eyes those banners get us for any given project are exponentially higher than anything else on campus.”
At 12:30 pm on Jan 8, contractors working on a biking event for Santa Cruz County miscalculated the height of a towed-excavator leading to damage in the walkway, said Officer Israel Murillo, a public information officer for the Highway Patrol in Santa Cruz. Officials were forced to close Soquel Drive at the location for a few hours, said Murillo.
“That was the only hardship that occurred that day (closure of Soquel Drive). Santa Cruz County Roads came in and they put closures in the area,” said Murillo.
