Saturday, April 10, 2010

California Bridges - Mulholland Drive Overcrossing


When I first saw this bridge high above the  San Diego Freeway, I thought it was really great. The tall columns and haunched girders make for a dramatic entrance into Los Angeles. The Santa Monica Mountains are covered in a sunburnt chaparral with no sign of human habitation.

Mulholland Drive Overcrossing has a three span, reinforced concrete box girder superstructure on three column bents. It was built in 1959 and it has been designated as a historic structure.

I was less pleased by its appearance after we encased the concrete columns with steel shells in the aftermath of the 1994 Northridge earthquake. However, I was really displeased upon attending a meeting last month (on the widening of I-405 to ten lanes) to discover they are now going to remove this historic landmark! The people of Los Angeles must take an unsentimental attitude towards their bridges.
Creative Commons License
California Bridges - Mulholland Drive Overcrossing by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

No comments: