After more than 20 years and multiple rounds of funding, the Pacoima Wash Pedestrian Bridge was officially opened at Cindy Montañez Natural Park, with the family of Elias “Eli” Rodriguez in attendance.
The bridge will connect César E. Chávez Learning Academies to nearby homes and the park. To connect neighborhoods in the Northeast San Fernando Valley is a key part of Phase 1 of the Pacoima Wash Connectivity Project, which began in March 2023.
The ribbon-cutting ceremony was held on Friday, Oct. 25, with dignitaries that included Assemblymember Luz Rivas, San Fernando Mayor Celeste Rodriguez, Vice Mayor Mary Mendoza, Councilmember Victoria Garcia, City Manager Nick Kimball and Rudy Ortega Jr., president of the Fernandeño Tataviam Band of Mission Indians.
Rivas said that the absence of a pedestrian bridge posed a public safety concern and unnecessarily risked lives, as was the case with young Eli. In February 2017, the 14-year-old student got swept up and drowned in the rushing water moving in the Pacoima Wash during a horrific storm that would last for days making a search difficult.
Students used the wash as a shortcut walking back and forth from school to their neighborhood homes.
His family, taking matters into their own hands and passing out flyers and conducting their search, found his body a week later, miles away in the Los Angeles River in Los Feliz.
The teen’s passing devastated the local community, thousands attended a candlelight vigil. His family held news conferences pointing to the lack of maintenance and preventive measures needed at the wash.
Following Eli’s death, students at César Chávez Academies were warned that the floor of the wash is concrete and slippery and can be deceiving. It was no more evident than the passing of Eli – representatives from LAFD search and rescue explained what appears to you to be a small amount of water that you may think you can walk through, will sweep you away.
When Eli attended the César Chávez Academies, the sidewalk area next to the wash could at best be described as a small strip of concrete so small that only one student at a time could pass through. Ironically, that small walking space was called “the bridge.”
Holes were cut into the fencing surrounding the wash which allowed students to travel through the wash.
Phase 1 now includes a 12-foot wide, 1.34-mile-long bicycle and pedestrian path alongside the wash from Fourth Street to Eighth Street in the City of San Fernando and improved fencing along the bikeway.
At the ceremony, a plaque was unveiled that dedicated the bridge and bike path in Eli’s memory.
“Underserved areas of the state like ours often lack critical infrastructure investments that could prevent tragedies like [Eli’s],” Rivas said. “But today, we’re celebrating this bridge. This bridge is more than just infrastructure – it represents our commitment to enhancing pedestrian safety and building a stronger and more connected community in the Northeast San Fernando Valley.”
This project has been in the works for more than 20 years since the City of San Fernando developed the Pacoima Wash Greenway Master Plan around 2003 in partnership with Cal Poly Pomona’s Department of Landscape Architecture. It’s received numerous sources of funding, the latest coming from Rivas in 2022 when she secured $7.5 million from the state budget.
Other funding sources include $1.5 million from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in 2007, $354,000 from the South Coast Air Quality Management District in 2015, $973,000 in 2017 from Caltrans and $1 million in 2022 from the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy Board.
Ortega Jr., a board member of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, said, “It’s important that we celebrate this because this was through the young man’s life that we’ve lost and cherished, and so this way the bridge is here for the rest of the community to connect across the [wash].”
Celeste Rodriguez noted that the ceremony came a little more than a year after the passing of Montañez. As the bridge honors Eli by preventing future tragedy, she said, it honors Montañez for being located at the park renamed in her memory, where families can enjoy the outdoors.
“Today, our community heals a little bit more by celebrating them with a permanent place where residents can gather and cross safely,” Celeste Rodriguez said.
Kimball said with the excess funds, they can move into Phase 2 of the project, which entails adding features to the path based on community feedback. These include extending the bike path by an additional 0.25 miles, creating a flexible open space for community events and educational signage near the bridge, upgrading the trails, adding shade, and lighting and signs within the park.
He also thanked the city staff members who helped behind the scenes to get the bridge built, especially Patsy Orozco, a civil engineering assistant in the city’s Public Works Department who has been in charge of the project for the last 15 years and Carlos Hernandez, former assistant to the city manager who answered the call when Rivas had reached out.
“This is just the beginning,” Kimball said. “We want to connect this bikeway all the way to Foothill [Boulevard] so that in the not-too-distant future, you’ll be able to bike from Sylmar down to Burbank as we connect this to the bike path on San Fernando Road.”
Editor Diana Martinez contributed to this article.
As a local bicyclist and advocate, I am happy to hear that the bridge is complete, and the bike path is expected to open soon (I Hope). I envision the San Fernando Road Bike Path connecting with the Pacoima Wash Connectivity Project Bike Path. Connecting the Bike Paths will make it easier for Bicyclists to connect to their destination.