Politics & Government

Wraps Coming Off Grossmont Trolley Skybridge in Mid-November

Long stair climb to mall will be over when SANDAG project is completed behind Pravada apartments.

The long-awaited Grossmont Trolley Station elevator and skybridge will open in November, says a member of the board overseeing the Metropolitan Transit System.

Completion of the $7.9 million project—giving trolley riders easy access to Grossmont Center instead of long climbs via wooden stairways—had been promised by mid-July.

Councilman Ernie Ewin, who represents La Mesa on the MTS Executive Committee, said Friday that the project will open in mid-November—just in time for holiday shopping.

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Trolley riders who can’t easily navigate the 38-step stairway north of the station (replacing the 50-plus wooden steps to the parking lot of 24 Hour Fitness) can take the MTS Route 1 bus, which goes from the transit center to and the before heading west on El Cajon Boulevard into Hillcrest. 

“For many, many years, our goal was to get an elevator that would help take people up that 30 feet or so elevation change,” City Manager Dave Witt said in December. “That was a big challenge, getting the capital funds together to afford that project.”

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The contributed $540,000 toward the project.  A federal stimulus grant of $4 million also was part of the mix.

The first design for station improvements was submitted in August 2003, but it wasn’t until August 2009 that the final design for the mustard-and-red pedestrian skybridge and elevator tower was finally completed, officials said in December.

“This project was truly a win-win for everyone," Frank Owsiany, La Mesa’s senior transportation engineer, said eight months ago. “It required multi-agency, multidiscipline cooperation between the city of La Mesa, SANDAG, MTS, Fairfield Residential and private property owners.”

Fairfield Residential LLC is the real estate development company selected by the city in July 2003 to build the Alterra and Pravada apartment complex on Fletcher Parkway that flanks the trolley station.  Despite the trolley’s existence since 1989, Witt says the timing of the apartment construction and discussion of plans to improve public accessibility were coincidental.

Groundbreaking for the tower project took place in mid-February 2010, attended by Mayor Art Madrid and Lori Holt Pfeiler, mayor of Escondido and chair of SANDAG.

La Mesa-based Riha Construction is the primary contractor, with five employees and 10 subconsultants working directly on the project.


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