The city of Tempe is planning to build a pedestrian bridge over Tempe Town Lake, providing a safer passage for pedestrians and cyclists.
The bridge will cross the west dam of the lake, near the Tempe Center for the Arts.
Construction will begin in January and take about one year to complete, Rio Salado Project Manager Nancy Ryan said.
Ryan said, the $6 million project has been in the city’s plans since before the lake was built in 1999.
“The designers were anticipating utilizing the piers to support a pedestrian bridge in the future,” she said.
The 228-foot bridge will be a bowstring arch, or cross arch, design with a 10-foot-wide bridge deck.
The deck will expand an extra four feet at the piers to allow pedestrians to step aside from the main path and enjoy the view, Ryan said.
There will also be a shading system using triangular pieces of fabric that will be placed at the viewpoints, she said.
These “sun sails” will flow down along the main beams and connect the different arches while giving shade at the piers, she said.
“The overall plan is to create a loop around the lake, and the bridge will complete one of those missing segments in the planned loop,” Ryan said.
“It will be a valuable link for the region, and it will provide a path that will serve the regional connection for bike paths and pedestrian trails,” she added.
Ryan said the bridge and loop will be an important connection for ASU because of the campus’s high volume of bicyclists.
“The Tempe Town Lake draws about 2.7 million visitors a year, so the bridge will be a highly used path,” she said. “And it will also be beneficial for the events held at the lake each year, like community-based charity walks.”
Kinesiology sophomore Kristin Garcia said she thinks the bridge is a good idea since the pedestrians won’t have to cross the lake alongside cars.
“I think it’s going to make it a lot safer,” Garcia said.
Its separation from cars will make it a great date spot, secondary education junior Laurie Joseph said.
“I’ve always thought it’d be romantic to have a way to cross the lake at night, without being right next to the traffic,” Joseph said.
Reach the reporter at charlsy.panzino@asu.edu.
