For neighbors along San Francisquito Creek, the sudden roar of construction equipment is actually good news: crews have begun tearing into the century-old Newell Road bridge, kicking off the first visible piece of the long-promised Reach 2 flood-protection project for Palo Alto and East Palo Alto. It is a practical turning point for residents who still remember the big floods of past decades and the emergency sandbag lines that came with heavy storms.
The work is part of an 18-month construction contract worth about $16.12 million, led by the City of Palo Alto, with most of the funding coming through Caltrans’ Highway Bridge Program. Crews mobilized in mid-May, and the city says in-channel work is scheduled to start in early June. The replacement bridge will widen the crossing to two 10-foot lanes with shoulders and sidewalks and will sit higher over the creek so larger storm flows can move through.
What Reach 2 covers
The Newell Road project is the first major element of the San Francisquito Creek Joint Powers Authority’s Reach 2 upstream plan, which bundles bridge replacements with targeted channel widening and repairs or additions to bank-top floodwalls. The SFCJPA says recent recalibration of hydraulic models, informed by the December 31, 2022 storm, shows the creek has roughly 25% less conveyance than engineers previously thought, a finding that has reshaped the scope and sizing of Reach 2 options. According to the San Francisquito Creek Joint Powers Authority, project components under consideration include replacing the Newell Road and Pope-Chaucer bridges, selected in-channel widening, and bank-top floodwalls.
Federal role and money
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is leading a Continuing Authorities Program (CAP-205) feasibility study to widen constricted portions of the channel between Highway 101 and the Pope-Chaucer area, with program costs of about $15.5 million for the study itself. Local reporting notes that the Corps is eyeing widening at two of the four Reach 2 sites and sketches a multiyear schedule that would push formal design work into 2028 and in-channel construction toward 2030. Per the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the federal work will be phased so that downstream neighborhoods are not left more exposed while upstream changes move ahead.
Officials, residents cautious but hopeful
At a May 21 kickoff event, local officials cast the Newell bridge replacement as a long-awaited early win, while warning that other choke points on the creek will still need attention. The Newell Road bridge replacement is an important step and "an example of the community coming together," Crescent Park resident Thomas Rindfleisch told Palo Alto Online. SFCJPA Executive Director Margaret Bruce cautioned that fixing one pinch point does not magically solve flood risk everywhere. "If we take the bridge out, downstream properties are going to be more vulnerable to flooding than they already are," she said, while Palo Alto Vice Mayor Greer Stone framed the work as part of a longer game, saying that investing in resilient infrastructure is essential to protecting communities for generations to come, according to the same outlet.
What to watch next
Officials say the SFCJPA will keep refining alternatives and bring staff recommendations to its board as environmental review and permitting move forward. Valley Water’s project page notes that the agency and the Corps are coordinating validation of hydraulic models and that the SFCJPA expects alternatives analysis to continue through 2026, while the Corps completes the feasibility steps needed before full design and permitting. For now, bridge work is moving ahead locally while federal channel work is being staged to minimize the chance of shifting flood risk downstream.
For neighbors who have spent years watching high water push under old concrete girders, the new span and the promise of channel improvements bring a hard-won measure of relief, but engineers and elected officials stress that Reach 2 will still require years of design, permitting, and carefully sequenced construction before flood risk is meaningfully reduced across the watershed. The City of Palo Alto has posted project updates on its website and says it will share schedule changes and traffic notices as work progresses.
