Construction began Sept. 21 on the Fenton Parkway Bridge, which will provide vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists with a new crossing in Mission Valley. The bridge is designed to let water flow completely over it during heavy floods.  

The bridge will extend Fenton Parkway over the San Diego River to Camino del Rio North. It will include one traffic lane in each direction, bicycle and pedestrian pathways on both sides and a center-turn lane for access to San Diego State University’s Snapdragon Stadium. 

The project is intended to improve “multimodal transportation in the area and improve public safety by providing a reliable and direct access route for emergency response personnel,” SDSU officials said in a press release. It will also expand access to the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System Green Line trolley stations at Fenton Parkway and SDSU Mission Valley. 

As construction enters its third week, the university said traffic impacts will be minimal on Camino Del Rio North and at the Fenton Parkway/River Park Road intersection. 

With a $53 million price tag for design, entitlements and construction, general contractor Flatiron Dragados anticipates construction will be complete in fall 2027. 

The Fenton Parkway Bridge project is part of a 2018 agreement between SDSU and the City of San Diego, which also led to the development of SDSU Mission Valley.   

Although SDSU is constructing the bridge, it will be owned and operated by the city, Anne Collins-Doehne, director of land use planning and environmental review for The California State University system, said. 

In 2022, SDSU and the city entered into a Memorandum of Understanding for the Fenton Parkway Bridge project and have worked closely on the bridge’s design, environmental review and permitting. 

“The bridge is an essential public facility that has been in the Mission Valley Community Plan for decades,” SDSU’s press release read. 

San Diego’s Mission Valley Community Plan was originally adopted by the City Council in 1985 and has been amended more than 20 times to reflect changes in the city’s planning, most recently in 2019, according to a 2019 report to the Planning Commission.

The plan covers 32,000 acres in central San Diego. It will include 4,600 residential units, including SDSU student, faculty and staff housing, affordable, workforce and market-rate housing and SDSU’s multiuse Snapdragon Stadium. 

SDSU said that 10 percent of the units will be affordable housing, approximately 460 of the 4,600 units. Those units will be available to those who qualify for affordable housing, including students, faculty, staff and the general community. 

The plan also includes approximately 400 hotel rooms and 6,000 parking spaces. 

For additional details and information on the project and construction, visit missionvalley.sdsu.edu/community-updates.