Rancho Cordova's city council unanimously approved a $2.2 million increase to the engineering contract for its Zinfandel Drive Bicycle and Pedestrian Overcrossing Project Monday, pushing the total cost of the Highway 50 crossing to $38.2 million. The vote, part of the council's consent calendar, adds more money to the project.
According to the Sacramento Bee, the additional costs stemmed from delays securing state approvals tied to the project's scale and complexity, per a city staff report. The newly expanded contract with Dewberry Engineers Inc. covers engineering assistance, artist coordination, and help navigating state agency reviews and approvals. City spokesperson Maria Kniestedt confirmed the $38.2 million total cost to the paper, and the city originally approved Dewberry's initial contract at roughly $3.1 million in February 2020, later adding $965,000 for additional engineering design and state-agency coordination in December 2025, per a city staff report.
The overcrossing will create a grade-separated Class 1 multi-use path nearly one mile long, beginning at White Rock Road, crossing over Gold Center Drive and the Highway 50 eastbound on-ramp, spanning the freeway itself via a tied-arch bridge, and passing under the westbound on-ramp to reach Folsom Boulevard, according to the California Transportation Commission. Construction is tentatively scheduled to begin in spring 2027 and finish that fall, a timeline that has shifted from the project's previously expected spring 2028 completion noted in earlier Bee reporting, though construction had initially been expected to start in summer 2026.
Funding Breakdown and State Clearance
Of the $38.2 million total, Rancho Cordova has received $23.3 million in state and federal funding, with the remainder covered by traffic mitigation impact fees and the city's infrastructure replacement fund, per the Bee's reporting. The single largest piece of that state money is $19.956 million secured through Cycle 6 of California's Active Transportation Program.
The city adopted the Mitigated Negative Declaration for the overcrossing, and the California Transportation Commission considered it and approved the project for future consideration of funding under Resolution E-26-76. Full environmental compliance under CEQA is required before the commission can release additional grant funds tied to the bridge.
Separately, in February the Rancho Cordova City Council approved a $3.19 million construction management contract with Ghirardelli Associates, Inc., as reported by the Folsom Times, to oversee compliance and coordination as the project moves from final design into active construction. City staff have clarified that those management fees are separate from the physical costs of building the bridge itself.
Why the Crossing Matters for a Booming Suburb
The overcrossing will allow pedestrians and bicyclists to cross Highway 50 near Zinfandel Drive, connecting parts of Rancho Cordova that the freeway currently separates, and improving connections to Sacramento Regional Transit light rail stations along Folsom Boulevard, per the city staff report cited by the Bee. That matters in a city growing as fast as Rancho Cordova is: data from the California Department of Finance released last year ranked it the fifth fastest-growing city in California among municipalities over 30,000 residents, expanding 3.2% in a single year to reach 85,451 residents, far outpacing the statewide average growth rate of 0.28% over the same period.
State housing data released this spring placed Rancho Cordova ninth in California for percentage growth in single-family housing units. Pedestrian safety along the Zinfandel corridor has been a persistent concern locally; the city noted that in March 2024, a 13-year-old girl was hit by two vehicles while crossing the nearby intersection of Zinfandel Drive and International Drive, underscoring why a grade-separated crossing has been treated as a priority for the area's high-traffic arterials.
Public Art Woven Into the Bridge Itself
Beyond moving people safely over the freeway, the project folds in a $1.4 million Art Walk program funded through the city's capital improvement plan, according to earlier Bee reporting. The city is also incorporating artist-related work into the project.
Rancho Cordova is not alone in building this kind of connector. Nearby West Sacramento completed a similar $16.9 million Highway 50 pedestrian overcrossing last year, known as Sycamore Trail Phase II, to reconnect residential neighborhoods and elementary schools divided by the freeway, according to the City of West Sacramento. Both projects relied on Active Transportation Program grants to establish low-stress walking routes across a freeway corridor that has long divided Sacramento County suburbs.
Hoodline has covered other Rancho Cordova projects as the city has pursued a wave of infrastructure and development initiatives alongside its rapid population growth. For now, the Zinfandel Drive overcrossing remains in the design and approval phase, with construction tentatively set to begin in spring 2027 and the council's latest $2.2 million contract bump intended to keep the engineering and state-review work moving toward that start date.
