photo credit: City of Santa Rosa
Artist's rendering of 101 Pedestrian bridge to begin construction in Spring of 2026

After over two decades of planning, a new pedestrian bridge will be built across highway 101.

The 1,100-foot-long bridge will be just for people who are walking, or on bicycles, wheelchairs, rollerblades, however you chose to get about the city, according to Misti Wood with the City of Santa Rosa.

She said this critical connection between the east and west side of Santa Rosa has been on the city's radar for some time.

"This overcrossing was first identified in 2001 in Santa Rosa's Bicycle and Pedestrian master plan," Wood said.

And for the last 24 years, this project has been a long-standing community priority so people can safely cross the highway without being on busy city streets.

"The feasibility study was in 2007," Wood said. "It's been a long, long process of community input, and partnership with state, federal and regional partners to not only get a design that works well for everyone, but also to acquire the funding."

"The city has 48.5 million dollars funded for this project through a local sales tax, state gas tax, local, state, and federal grants," Wood said.

The California Transportation Commission approved the amendment of the State Transportation Improvement Program, unlocking one final piece of funding.

"The last twelve million dollars of grant funding from the state was secured last month," Wood said. "That allows us to move forward with bidding," Wood said.

Wood said construction is planned to get underway in Spring of 2026.

When complete, the overcrossing would directly serve the nearby Sonoma Marin Area Rail Transit station, Santa Rosa Junior College, Santa Rosa High School, Coddingtown Mall and surrounding neighborhoods, with landings on Elliott and Edwards avenues.

"Assuming everything goes well, we expect the project will be completed late 2027," Wood said.

You can see artist renderings of the completed overcrossing at srcity.org.