SAN ANTONIO – At 66 years old, Hortense Espinoza said she’s lived in the inner West Side all of her life. And every day, she avoids driving on Castroville Road.
“The traffic, it’s gotten worse,” Espinoza said.
She said she hadn’t walked across the road either, even after the city placed a temporary crosswalk near the intersection with Dahlgreen Avenue.
“It’s so busy, and I think it’s just dangerous,” Espinoza said. “It’s a safety issue. The traffic is just horrendous.
The temporary crosswalk was put up in the weeks following Feb. 21, 2023. In the early morning of that day, a truck crashed into the Pedro Romero Pedestrian Bridge.
Nearly a year later, the two ramps that once connected the bridge, are still standing. Neighbors worry that it’s a safety hazard. But the city said that soon won’t be the case.
“We have been working to demolish the existing remaining of the bridge, which is going to start next week,” said Razi Hosseini, director of the city’s Public Works Department.
Starting on Monday, the city will demolish what’s left of the pedestrian bridge. At a Westwood Square Neighborhood Association meeting this week, a project manager for the demolition told neighbors the following information as far as travel and traffic impacts during the project:
- Barricades on Castroville Road for the construction will be set up before Monday, Feb. 5, to allow crews to get an early start on day one.
- Traffic will go down to one lane in each direction at the intersection near Castroville Road and Dahlgreen Avenue.
- The VIA bus stop will close, and the shelter there will be removed.
So why did it take a year for the city to remove what’s left of the bridge?
Hosseini said the city has been waiting for insurance money to come in from the trucking company that hit the bridge. He said the city received just under $1 million, and it will be spent on the demolition, a traffic study and the construction of a permanent crossing.
“That took some time and also we had to design to demolition,” Hosseini said.
A spokesperson for Public Works confirmed the city is designing a four-way traffic signal to be placed at the intersection. They said the complete removal of the bridge should be done by this summer, and that’s when the construction of the new traffic signal will begin.
In the meantime, that spokesperson confirmed that a consultant was hired to study the Castroville Road corridor to determine if any “further pedestrian amenities are recommended.”
Through a public records request, KSAT 12 received the proposal from Pape-Dawson Consulting Engineers. That proposed study was broken into five parts and would cost the city an estimated $68,580.
“Since we are removing that bridge and is adding additional signal, what other improvements we need to do in this corridor?” Hosseini said.
Neighbors like Velma Pena said removing the ramps left over from the bridge is just step one.
“They’ve been there for so long,” Pena said. “It’s going to be like a relief for a lot of people.”
To read more on the neighborhood’s efforts in KSAT 12′s Know My Neighborhood series, click here.
