The repair has taken years to coordinate.

After years of planning and collaboration, Coast Walk Trail’s walking bridge will be repaired in early 2025.

Coast Walk Trail is a path measuring just over a half-mile, running along the bluffs in La Jolla from Goldfish Point and Coast Boulevard east to Coast Walk.

Designated historic by the city of San Diego in 1990, Coast Walk Trail is known as a “paper street,” listed in city records under the Transportation Department as it was once planned for vehicular travel.

The trail is also now part of the nationally-designated La Jolla Park Coastal Historic District.

The walking bridge spans part of the northern end of the historic Coast Walk near the Prospect Street/Park Row trailhead and was first constructed in the early 1920s, according to Brenda Fake, who runs the nonprofit group Friends of Coast Walk Trail to preserve and maintain the trail.

The bridge has undergone a couple of repairs, most recently in the early 1990s but is in need of another round, Fake said.

The city of San Diego requires a right of entry permit for Friends of Coast Walk to do the work; Fake recently learned those permit fees have been waived, reducing the cost – and therefore speeding up the project’s start date.

“This is wonderful news,” she said.

Bridge construction and repair is expected to begin in late February, Fake said, which will allow Friends of Coast Walk Trail to use a $20,000 San Diego County Neighborhood Reinvestment Grant to partially fund the project.

The grant, awarded in March 2024, expires in March 2025 if not used.

Work on the bridge will take about three weeks to complete; during that time, the bridge will be closed and trail ambassadors will be on hand to answer questions and redirect, Fake said.

To date, Friends has raised another $30,000 in addition to the county grant for the project; another $25,000 is needed to complete the repairs and “close the gap,” Fake said.

To contribute, visit friendsofcoastwalk.org/donate.

Other trail work beginning in December will include winter rain mitigation efforts, walking surface repairs and additional native planting.

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