One Iron Horse Bridge Is Done. San Ramon Just Started Designing the Next One.

"How many of you have been on the Iron Horse Trail almost run over by kids on an e-bike? OK, almost everybody in here has their hands raised," Contra Costa County Supervisor Candace Andersen said at a Danville Town Council meeting this summer.

She followed with a second point. "The reality is that we do have people who have the ability to utilize e-bikes as an alternative mode of transportation for the last mile that could connect someone to a BART station," she said.

Both points come together on one stretch of trail in San Ramon. It runs 1.3 miles from the bridge over Bollinger Canyon Road to the spot where the trail still crosses Crow Canyon Road at a traffic light. Three public projects are aimed at it right now. News coverage tends to treat them one at a time, but together they add up to a single plan. The two bridges get trail users out of traffic at each end of the stretch, and a second path in between separates walkers from wheels.

The south end already works

The Bollinger Canyon Road overcrossing opened on Saturday, July 19, 2025. The day started with remarks in the City Hall rotunda at 9 a.m. and a ribbon cutting at the bridge's north entrance an hour later. The city describes it as a 340-foot, six-span cable-stayed bridge with a central pylon, 900 feet of approach ramps and landscaped gathering areas. The engineering firm's account adds a V-shaped steel pylon, safety lighting built into the handrails, architectural lighting on the cables and pylon, and more than 7,300 native plants and 80 trees.

The city puts the total cost at $29 million, with more than 82% coming from outside grants and Measure J. The Public Works director called it an "instant landmark." CCTA Commissioner Newell Arnerich said it replaced a dangerous street-level crossing and made the trip "safe and stress-free."

The bridge also connects places people already go. The Contra Costa Transportation Authority lists City Center, Bishop Ranch, Central Park, City Hall, the library, the transit center and Iron Horse Middle School as the destinations it links. Now that the south end has a bridge, attention has shifted to the north end.

The north end got its designer on Monday

On September 21, the San Ramon City Council voted 5–0 to hire engineering firm Mark Thomas to design a bridge over Crow Canyon Road, under a contract of up to $2,059,133, according to Bay Area Telegraph. The design money is already in hand. It includes $2 million in federal Community Project Funding and $233,232 in local matching money from the city's General Fund.

Once the bridge is built, the traffic signal and crosswalk where the trail meets Crow Canyon Road would be removed. The city lists fewer conflicts between cars and trail users, smoother traffic and safer trail access for nearby schools among the goals.

The bridge won't open anytime soon. The city lists a tentative construction window of 2028 through 2030, depending on funding, and Monday's vote didn't award a construction contract or set an opening date. The idea itself goes back much further. San Ramon approved a corridor concept plan in 2009 that looked at trail overcrossings. Public outreach produced conceptual designs for both the Crow Canyon and Bollinger Canyon bridges in 2015.

Why the Iron Horse can have bridges at all

For decades, the trail's own history stood in the way of bridges like these. When the county bought the old Western Pacific Railroad right of way about 50 years ago, the state grants that paid for it required the county to plan for a busway or other mass transit along the corridor.

Locals pushed back on that idea early. Andersen recalled telling former supervisor and Danville councilmember Millie Greenberg that the trail might someday carry transit, and Greenberg answered, "over my dead body."

A 2017 bill from Tim Grayson, now a state senator, dropped the transit requirement. It also ended the county's obligation to keep 34 feet of clearance for future transit, and that change cleared the way for a walking-and-biking bridge at Bollinger Canyon Road. Each project on this stretch rests on that 2017 change.

The middle 1.3 miles is the bigger change

The bridges solve the problem of cars crossing the trail. The county's "double tracking" project is aimed at the conflict between walkers and cyclists. Its first phase would build a new path alongside the existing trail, running from the Bollinger Canyon bridge to the planned Crow Canyon bridge.

The county's reasoning comes from its own 2020 study of the corridor. That study found that splitting wheeled users from pedestrians gave the best level of service where demand is high. It also found that trail users named that split as the most critical improvement needed. County staff say hundreds of children use the trail to get to and from school every school day, and that conflicts between wheeled users and pedestrians have increased.

Andersen has noted that the friction between walkers and cyclists started before e-bikes became common. Her interest also goes beyond safety. She pointed out that BART has no station between Dublin and Walnut Creek. For her, a faster, separated lane is a way to get people from San Ramon's job centers to a train. The 2020 study also floated an autonomous shuttle on the trail, but that idea isn't part of this project.

Here is where each piece stood as of late September 2026.

Where the money actually stands

Andersen puts the San Ramon pilot at $2 million to $3 million. On April 1, Rep. Mark DeSaulnier announced a $1.5 million request for the pilot to the House Appropriations Committee. The committee's FY2027 project funding table lists $500,000 for it instead. The bill carrying that amount, H.R. 9170, was last listed on Congress.gov as placed on the Union Calendar on June 5, so that money hasn't been approved yet.

Closer to home, the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors approved an application on August 11 asking CCTA for construction funding for San Ramon's Phase 1. CCTA runs several funding programs through that one application, including One Bay Area Grant 4 and two Measure J programs. It will evaluate the submitted projects and decide which source, or mix of sources, fits any project it chooses to fund.

The timeline Andersen gave in July is a hope that depends on funding. She wanted to finish the plans by the end of the year, then go out for bids once funding was secured. "I'd love to see it done in 2027," she said. She also mentioned the trail next to the Dublin/Pleasanton BART station as a possible later phase, noting that talks with Alameda County have been informal.

The same stretch, this fall

Until the new pieces arrive, the trail works the way it does today. The city describes its segment as flat, paved and wheelchair accessible. At the south end of the stretch, you cross Bollinger Canyon Road on the bridge. At the north end, you still wait for the light at Crow Canyon Road.

The East Bay Regional Park District oversees the Iron Horse Trail, so Danville's local e-bike rules don't apply to the trail itself. San Ramon's e-bike safety page covers California's general rules on bike classes, age and helmets.

Some places along the stretch are worth knowing about this fall.

• Central Park, 12501 Alcosta Boulevard, has direct trail access, restrooms, picnic areas and a playground.
• City Center Bishop Ranch, on the other side of the Bollinger bridge, has Philz Coffee, Joe & The Juice, Boba Guys and Salt & Straw in its current directory.
• Fieldwork Brewing's Oktoberfest at City Center runs through October 4, with a guided beer-flight night on September 24.
• Howl-O-Ween, a free costumed pet parade, is set for October 25 from 2 to 3 p.m. in Alexander Square.

If you ride north into Danville, the park district's alerts page listed Caltrans maintenance at the I-680 overpass near Glen Arms Drive and Laurel Road as of September 23, and it advises caution and staying on the paved trail.

If you'd like to talk through how a trail project like this could shape your own plans in San Ramon, whether that's a parent's next move or your own, Realm Real Estate is glad to walk through it with you, no pressure attached. Let's Connect.