ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – The city’s plans for a sky bridge to the Convention Center are moving forward. The bridge is just one piece of a plan to revitalize downtown. The Rail Trail Sky Bridge will be between Tijeras and Marquette and will give people an easy way to safely cross the tracks and connect what the city calls two historically and economically divided parts of the city.
“The project includes not only a pedestrian skybridge that links east downtown to west downtown but it’s going to transform a parking lot into a plaza and enable development of two parking lots remained parking lots into housing or hotel,” said Karen Iverson of Metro Redevelopment Agency.
The project will also include a trail along the tracks and up to 140 residential units or hotel rooms on adjacent tracts of land; It is a public-private partnership. The city wants to contribute $1 million in General Obligation Bond money to the bridge itself which will cost $6 million. That will be considered at the Development Commission meeting on March 11.
According to a news release, the city says in addition to the pedestrian sky bridge, the first phase of the project would include:
- Construction of a public plaza between the Springer Square and Verge buildings, which would replace existing surface parking
- Construction of an elevator in the Convention Center parking structure, as well as two elevators and a stairway connecting the sky bridge to the plaza
- An easement for the Rail Trail where the right-of-way is insufficient
