Skybridge at Grossmont Transit Center Opens on Saturday Morning

Black Friday at Grossmont Center will be easier to reach this year. The long-awaited skybridge and elevator at the Grossmont Transit Center open Saturday morning, the county says.

The transit station northeast of the mall, called one of the busiest transportation hubs in the region, has undergone a $7.9 million makeover. The city of La Mesa contributed $540,000.  A federal stimulus grant of $4 million was the major source of money, the city said recently.

The first design for station improvements was submitted in August 2003, but it wasn’t until August 2009 that the final design for the mustard-and-red pedestrian skybridge and elevator tower was finally completed, officials said in December.

“New amenities, including elevators, a pedestrian bridge, and a plaza with colonnades and palm trees, will open this Saturday, just in time for the holiday season,” the county said Thursday.

“The station is not only more attractive, it also now complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Before the improvements were made, the only direct access to major retail, commercial, and medical facilities on the mesa above the station was a steep wooden stairway.”

The project is one of the first federal stimulus-funded transportation projects completed in the region, the county said.

Dignitaries set to appear include Mayor Art Madrid, SANDAG First Vice Chair and Santee Councilman Jack Dale and Metropolitan Transit System board member and Councilman Ernest Ewin, who will cut the ribbon on the new elevator tower.

Attendees of the ribbon cutting ceremony will ride up the elevators for the first time, the county said.

The Grossmont Transit Center is at 8601 Fletcher Pkwy. (turn on Trolley Court to get to station).