Thursday December 16th, 2010 Penetencia Creek and 101

I sat down and fell to talking with the woman in the next seat over. She said that she works for Google and lives on the other side of this freeway. Once the bridge is finished she is going to use it to commute to work on her bicycle. It wasn't long after that the formal part of the meeting started.

City Manager Kevin Duggan began by thanking "that small local company that some have heard of named Google" for letting Mountain View use the back half of this parking lot for a construction staging area. He explained that the bridge would be long for a bike bridge, crossing eight lanes of 101 (the very busy freeway behind us) and then tunneling under something else before coming out on Old Middlefield Way. Then he had all of the elected officials in the gathering stand when he read their names and wave quickly. Then he introduced a few of the key players. The architect said the bridge is going to be great. After that the politicians that had something to say took turns addressing us.

The guy from the Water Board said he is looking forward to working with the city on this creekside project. He said that having been just elected he's been finding out about the project here talking to people. He said he felt like the proverbial politician that found a parade going somewhere and started leading it there.

The Mayor remembered being on the planning commission back when the project was just an idea. They had put a bicycle bridge across 101 at Permanente Creek on the ten year plan as something to be dreamed for. Now the City is committing something like six million dollars to making it happen. She could hardly wait for the day when she will be able to ride her bicycle over it.