ESCONDIDO -- The pedestrian and bicycle bridge under construction over Lake Hodges now has a name, but its opening date still is unknown.

The San Dieguito River Park Joint Powers Authority board of directors voted March 20 to name the structure the David Kreitzer Lake Hodges Bicycle Pedestrian Bridge. The board also voted to accept a donation and take out a loan to close the final funding gap for the project.

Kreitzer, a Rancho Bernardo resident and former San Diego County Planning Commission chairman, has been a longtime supporter of the San Dieguito River Park. In 2005, he was named the volunteer of the year by the River Park's Joint Powers Authority, the owner of the bridge.

The opening date of the bridge is at least a month away.

"The original finish date was March 15, but in the last three or four months there's been a delay here, a day of delay there," said Wade Durant, resident engineer with TY Lin International, the engineering firm that designed the stress-ribbon bridge.

The bridge itself is almost complete, but work has not begun on a shade structure with solar panels that will power the bridge's lights and gates.

Susan Carter, deputy director for the San Dieguito River Park, said the project's next step will be getting final city approval to build the shade structure, which will be on the bridge's north end. The structure will include a bench, interpretive signs and a 10-by-12-foot roof with solar panels that will provide power to lights on the bridge and to timed gates that will be locked from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m.

"The city's engineering department is reviewing the final touches, and as soon as that's done, they'll be starting on it," Carter said. "It should be started in a couple of weeks, and it shouldn't take long. They'll finish the entire project in April and have a grand opening in May."

When it is complete, the 990-foot bridge will connect trails in Escondido and Rancho Bernardo, eliminating a nine-mile detour cyclists and hikers must take to get around the lake.

Durant said workers are putting the finishing touches on hand rails and lights. Next will be the final step of layering a sandy sealant on the deck.

The bridge still may look incomplete to motorists who notice it from Interstate 15 just north of West Bernardo Drive, but they shouldn't worry. It's supposed to look like that.

The bridge is long and thin. Its deck slopes between the columns holding it up, and there's a reason it looks like nothing you've seen. Only five other stress-ribbon bridges have been built in the nation, and this is the largest of its kind in the world.

The unusual design was chosen to lessen the impact on the environment and wildlife. Durant said a typical bridge its size would be much heavier and be about 7 feet thick, while this bridge is less than 2 feet thick.

The term "stress ribbon" refers to the design that makes the bridge light but strong. The 12-foot-wide deck is made of 87 precast concrete panels that rest on support cables strung from shore to shore and tightened to transfer the vertical load to abutments on each side. Because of the reduced vertical load, the bridge needs only two columns to hold it up, Durant said, while a conventional bridge its size would need up to 19.

While the $10.3 million bridge did not come cheap, Carter said, the San Dieguito River Authority chose the design because another bridge would have required more columns. This design will have less of a visual impact.

The San Dieguito River Authority Joint Powers Authority was formed in 1989 by the county and five municipalities -- San Diego, Del Mar, Solana Beach, Escondido and Poway -- to preserve and interpret the natural and cultural resources of the San Dieguito River Valley.

The bridge was a decade in the making and was conceived by nature enthusiasts as part of a 55-mile linear park from Del Mar to Julian along the San Dieguito River.

Carter said funding for the bridge had fallen $675,000 short, but on March 20 the board accepted $400,000 from a donor who also gave a $275,000 loan. The donor's name has not been released.

Contact staff writer Gary Warth at (760) 740-5410 or gwarth@nctimes.com.