A switch to steel and six weeks of swift redesign saved a city’s dream of a signature pedestrian crossing with a 325-ft main span over 10 lanes of Interstate 280 in Silicon Valley. The first cable-stayed crossing over a freeway in California, the city of Cupertino’s Mary Avenue Bridge seemed doomed in 2007 after a concrete design received two bids double the $6 million budget. But thanks to the city calling on key industry contacts, it is slated to open next month.
“We were in a state of depression,” says Terry Greene, the city’s architect. The city wanted a crossing across the 10-lane freeway that would reconnect bisected neighborhoods and provide a safe biking and walking alternative to a traffic-heavy bridge almost a mile away.