The city celebrated an important reconnection to the Sacramento River Wednesday with the grand opening of the Docks Riverfront Promenade. More than 100 people — from cyclists and dog walkers to the city staff and contractors who made it happen — converged on the sunny, tree-lined promenade overlooking the green river to mark the completion of the parkway's $5.4 million first phase. Many rode a California State Railroad Museum train along its relocated track from Old Sacramento to the new Pioneer Landing Park, where the celebration began. The promenade and park, with its landscaped public plaza and giant water sculpture, were built to stimulate redevelopment of an old industrial brownfiel

Work on the riverfront south of Old Sacramento has closed Front Street from the California Automotive Museum north to O Street where it crosses I-5 to the Crocker Art Museum. It will not open until Oct. 12.  The roadbed has been removed in front of the newly-redone R Street viaduct, and traffic closed to bicycles as well as automobiles.   

A quick ride along Front Street south of the Tower Bridge reveals that all three of the projects in that area are proceeding apace, giving even the casual visitor a sense of what our riverfront development is going to look like in the very near future. With the death yesterday of Charles Gwathmey, the architect behind the new Crocker addition, we wanted to share these photos, taken, unbeknownst to us, on what would be the day of his passing. First is the new Crocker addition, which will triple the size of the museum, and more importantly, create a modern new presence that is visible from I-5 as well as from the riverfront area. Last week, crews started adding the metal facing that will

Work began last week on the old railroad viaduct between R Street and the new Riverfront Promenade area. It should be completed by the end of July.

Standing on Front Street, Beth Tincher was more than satisfied to survey riverfront construction this week. The project manager of the city's Docks Area Project and Riverfront Promenade watched construction workers set the promenade's concrete retaining wall and a circular seating wall that'll soon surround a water feature centerpiece playing off the city's historic waterfront. "I'm excited, because it's been a long time in the making," said Tincher, standing south of Tower Bridge. "It's pretty amazing to come out to the site and see what this could be -- the potential of this highly under-utilized old brownfield site." Sacramentans will get more than simply a mile of bike-and pedestria

It's been one of downtown bicyclists' (and skaters') favorite secrets—the old railroad viaduct that crosses I-5 at R Street, connecting the CalPERS neighborhood to the Sacramento River and the bike trail. Never fully converted from its old use as a railroad bridge that brought trains from the riverfront up R Street into the heart of downtown, the bridge will be a fully paved and lit bike and pedestrian bridge by August. Though the tracks were removed and the surface paved, the entrances on both sides were never finished, and remain loose gravel. And over the years, skaters have handcrafted some small skate ramps out of random curbs on the sides, as well as adding graffiti and an array of

After decades of neglect, with plans announced and then seemingly forgotten, the grand project to connect the Sacramento River with downtown Sacramento is underway. Crews began tearing up asphalt, railroad tracks and even the bike trail in preparation for extending the riverfront promenade that now extends just a couple of blocks south of the Embassy Suites hotel at the head of Capitol Mall, abutting the Tower Bridge. Ultimately, it will go a mile south, to Miller Park, tying the city to its riverfront as never before. When completed, the promenade will extend to the R Street viaduct over I-5, the first step in converting the riverfront to a mixed-use area most often compared with San An