A trio of California members of Congress announced last week that they’ve earmarked $2.5 million in federal funds for designing and building a pedestrian bridge over Highway 101 on tribal lands in northernmost California. The proposed project — part bridge, part monument gateway — addresses “a hazardous intersection area” on Highway 101 through Smith River, according to a news release from the Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation.
Scott Graves, a spokesperson for the tribe, told SFGATE in an email that the pedestrian bridge benefits North Coast residents, tribal citizens and visitors. “The area has a decades-long history of close calls and several pedestrian accidents involving non-fatal accidents,” he wrote.
The bridge would span the highway near the Lucky 7 Casino & Hotel, less than 5 miles from the Oregon-California border. Speaking from the gas station where she works near the proposed site on Thursday, Sadie Wheeler said she sees a need for mitigating traffic. “Drivers will blatantly ignore the crosswalk, leaving people to wait for somebody to stop,” she said.
U.S. Sens. Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff and Rep. Jared Huffman jointly announced the project, which is funded through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act passed under former President Joe Biden. Huffman wrote that the tribe was driving the effort to complete the bridge.
According to OpenSecrets, individual members of the Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation have donated at least $10,000 to Huffman over the course of several campaign cycles since 2014, while also supporting Padilla and Schiff in smaller amounts.
The $2,499,000 award allows for a preliminary design and final engineering to construct the Gateway Monument Pedestrian Bridge. The tribe said it will collaborate with cultural advisers and community members to incorporate Tolowa Dee-ni’ language and art into the bridge’s design.
Graves said that the Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation wants to make the crossing safer, not just for accessing the casino, but for services, offices and the Head Start education facility.
Officer Pete Gonzalez with the California Highway Patrol said they’ve already made an effort to enhance safety on Highway 101 in the area, including adding cautionary notice to the 45 mph speed limit and repairing the shoulder.
Gonzalez reviewed incident reports on Highway 101 near the casino and said he found two crashes involving pedestrians in the past decade, including one in 2023 that was not fatal. He added that nearby Highway 199 is more prone to car crashes.