Ped. Bridge 5 months behind

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - It cost $5 million and it was supposed to open five months ago. As a lot of you have noticed the pedestrian bridge over I-25 near San Mateo, the one the city was so proud of is still sitting unused.

“It's a little bit longer than we would like,” Melissa Lozoya with the City of Albuquerque said.

The 5 million dollar pedestrian bridge closing the gap between east and west over I-25 was supposed to open this summer.

“It was supposed to be done in July of 2012,” said Lozoya. When asked why it’s taking so long, Lozoya said, “There are two reasons, the first reason is just your normal construction delays.”

The other reason, the art project that goes along with the bridge isn't ready.

“Mainly consist of lighting so you will have up lighting and down lighting that will be cascading on the cage that you see over I-25.”

Lighting like the kind under the Big-I. So what happened to the lighting?

“Was not included on the original bid due to our federal funding deadlines that we had to meet and we were also working on the technical aspects of the lighting,” said Lozoya.

Basically it got a late start. The city says the construction also ran long and major obstacles caused a slow down on progress.

But it should be opening soon, “We are hoping to have the bridge open this month, December, for pedestrian and bicycle use. However we will have periodic closures when we are installing the lighting, up until February.”

That bridge is the only pedestrian bridge over I-25 in Albuquerque. There used to be one down by Cesar Chavez, but that was torn down years ago.