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November 2 2025 Vol. VI • No 22
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SANDAG Builds New Rail Bridge in San Diego County
Crew members pave alongside railroad tracks.
The I-5 Corridor in northern San Diego County is a busy area with overlapping transportation modes designed to benefit travelers, consumers and residents. SANDAG (San Diego Association of Governments), working with Caltrans, is seeking to enhance convenience and efficiency in the area by rebuilding a 308-ft. bridge over Batiquitos Lagoon. The bridge will be double-tracked as part of the 0.6-mi. expansion enabling both passengers and freight to travel quicker and more efficiently than the aging single-track bridge currently in
By Chuck MacDonald CEG CORRESPONDENT
The bridge will be supported further by H beams, I beams and soldier piles. The new bridge will be 10 ft. above the lagoon.
place. The contractors on the $166 million project are Flatiron, Skanska and Stacy and Witbeck. Stephen Fordham, senior engineer, is supervising the project for SANDAG. “The old bridge was built in the 1940s and consists of 22 spans each 14-feet apart supported by timber piers constructed of wooden piles,” he said. “The piles, similar to a wooden telephone pole, support the existing rail bridge over the lagoon. “As a single-track bridge, trains sometimes have to wait for a train to pass by in the opposite direction before proceeding over the bridge. Now,
when the new bridge is built, traffic will be able to move both northbound and southbound simultaneously.” Nearly 400,000 vehicles are shipped into the nearby Port of San Diego. “When the bridge is finished, it will assist with reducing the creation of greenhouse gases,” Fordham said. “Shipping the cars by freight is more cost-effective than by truck. The new double track, which will support more reliable service and could also draw more commuters to travel by rail rather than by car, potentially providing more environmental savings.” see BRIDGE page 6