SAN ANTONIO – Looking at the open air where the Pedro Romero pedestrian bridge once stood on Castroville Road, Jesusita Rios said she felt relieved.
“It’s really nice to see something that we had wanted for a year to pop up like this and to have it demolished in a matter of days,” Rios, a resident of Westwood Square, said.
Just days ago, city crews began demolishing what was left of the bridge near the intersection of Castroville and Dahlgreen in Westwood Square.
The two ramps leading up the bridge remained nearly a year after a truck crashed into the bridge back in February 2023.
On Friday, crews had entirely removed the ramps and were paving over the sidewalk.
As this demolition nears completion, the city said it has already hired a consultant who has begun studying the Castroville Corridor and its traffic flow.
“We (want to) do the traffic study to see what other improvements we need to make in the corridor,” Public Works Director Razi Hosseini said.
The city accepted a study proposal by Pape-Dawson Engineering. Through a records request, KSAT was able to obtain that proposal.
Across seven pages, the consultant said the project would work to determine “operation, safety and mobility improvements for the corridor.”
Traffic Study Proposal by Mason on Scribd
The proposal is divided into five tasks, from data collection to producing a final report.
The group planned to use a combination of city and state data, as well as data they collected, to come up with a final recommendation.
The proposal said it would “focus on intersection and pedestrian operations” and consider if the corridor can handle and needs multiple lanes, wider sidewalks, medians and even bike lanes.
Velma Pena, the president of the Westwood Square Neighborhood Association, said it’s long overdue.
“We want to be involved through all the steps that they have. If they have five steps, we want to be sure that the neighborhood association is involved in all five steps of this project,” Pena said. “We want to be proud of what they’re going to put on this side of town, and we need to have that voice.”
The price tag of this study is around $68,000, according to the proposal. Public Works said it should be completed by the end of this spring.
To read more about the history of the pedestrian bridge, click here.