Thursday, April 30, 2015

Los Angeles County, California Bridges: Balboa Boulevard Bridges across the Los Angeles River

August 2009 (34.1796 Degrees, -118.5011 Degrees) Los Angles River Bridges
After traveling about five miles down a concrete-lined channel, the Los Angeles River turns back into a normal river for two miles through Woodley and Balboa Parks. The Balboa Blvd Bridges (53C1095 and 53C1096) are two parallel seven span structures; one with steel girders built in 1941 and one with concrete girders built in 1964. Both bridges were widened in 1996 with sidewalks on both sides. The bridges have pretty columns and barrier rails.
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Los Angeles County, California Bridges: Balboa Boulevard Bridges across the Los Angeles River by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Los Angeles County, California Bridges: Victory Boulevard Bridge across the Los Angeles River

August 2009 (34.1867 Degrees, -118.5291 Degrees) Los Angeles River Bridges
Continuing down the Los Angeles River to the Victory Blvd. Bridge (53C1369) with a five span steel stringer superstructure. It sits on highly skewed pier walls with cutwaters. Looking back upstream is a pedestrian overcrossing and the Reseda Blvd Bridge (53C0062). All of the bridges across this part of the river were built around 1960.
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Los Angeles County, California Bridges: Victory Boulevard Bridge across the Los Angeles River by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Los Angeles County, California Bridges: Winnetka Avenue Bridge across the Los Angeles River

August 2009 (34.1906 Degrees, -118.5710 Degrees) Los Angeles River Bridges
Continuing downstream along the Los Angeles River to the Winnetka Avenue Bridge (53C1388), a two span steel stringer bridge that was built in 1958. As can be seen in the photo, the nicest thing about these bridges is the barrier, the lampposts, and the surrounding vegetation. So far, the LA River is just a concrete channel with a deeper channel in its center.
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Los Angeles County, California Bridges: Winnetka Avenue Bridge across the Los Angeles River by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Monday, April 27, 2015

Los Angeles County, California Bridges: Mason Avenue and Vanowen Street Bridges across the Los Angeles River

August 2009 (34.1937 Degrees, -118.5784 Degrees) Los Angeles River Bridges
We're continuing downstream and are now where Mason Avenue and Vanowen Street cross over the Los Angeles River (at right angles to each other). Each of these bridges is an example of how an attractive barrier rail can turn a boring bridge into something exciting! The more distant Mason Avenue Bridge (53C1244) has a muscular railing that's integral with the bridge and gives it a powerful appearance. The Vanowen Street Bridge (53C1362) has a whimsical recurrent theme (of wheels? of traveling?) cast into the barrier and a pretty metal rail on top that makes you feel like your traveling somewhere nice.
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Los Angeles County, California Bridges: Mason Avenue and Vanowen Street Bridges across the Los Angeles River by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Sunday, April 26, 2015

Los Angeles County, California Bridges: Owensmouth and Canoga Avenue Bridges across the Los Angeles River

August 2009 (34.1951 Degrees, -118.6014 Degrees) Los Angeles River Bridges
London has the Thames and Paris has the Seine, but Los Angeles (an equally important city) has the Los Angeles River. The LA River is a 48 miles long (mostly concrete lined) channel that flows from Canoga Park (in the Valley) to the Pacific Ocean (in Long Beach). We'll spend the next few weeks studying some of the bridges (and the different neighborhoods) that the river passes through.
The source of the river is where Bell Creek and Arroyo Calabasas come together at Canoga Park High School (see photos above and below)). After it's creation, the river immediately flows under the Owensmouth Avenue Bridge, a single span precast girder bridge and the Canoga Avenue Bridges, which are two span precast girder bridges. The bridges will get more interesting as we continue downstream.
The river usually has some water flowing all year long. Actually, the river can't carry all the water during heavy rains due to all the surrounding development. At this location we are in the suburbs of the San Fernando Valley, which is somewhat monotonous but still has charm due to the tropical vegetation and the nicely landscaped yards and gardens.
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Los Angeles County, California Bridges: Owensmouth and Canoga Avenue Bridges across the Los Angeles River by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Saturday, April 25, 2015

Los Angeles County, California Bridges: E105-N110 HOV Connector OC


April 2015 (33.9292 Degrees, -118.2818 Degrees) E105-N110 HOV Connector OC
The next day, I got a ride from a professor back onto the Harbor Freeway and then west onto the Century Freeway to the airport. He was driving a Volt and said the 40 mile battery was just enough to get him back and forth from his house at Hermosa Beach.  Also, it allowed him to use the HOV Connector (53 2682E) that we had climbed onto to avoid the heavy traffic.

This complicated interchange was another project that I worked on in the 1980s. It was so densely packed that we had trouble finding room to put our columns, some of which were 150 ft high with big outrigger bent caps. I designed some of the smaller connectors but I had to use C-bents to step around the bridges and roads.
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Los Angeles County, California Bridges: E105-N110 HOV Connector OC by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Friday, April 24, 2015

Los Angeles County, California Bridges: 51st Street Overcrossing on the Harbor (110) Freeway

April 2015 (33.9930 Degrees, -118.2805 Degrees) 51st Street OC
Last week we flew to Los Angeles to start a project to develop tsunami guidelines for bridges. The meeting was at the University of Southern California (USC), which is in a pretty area surrounded by urban blight. I took the shuttle from LAX onto the Harbor Freeway where we drove under one of my first bridge projects, a very long, elevated HOV structure. I was responsible for the advanced planning study and so I drew a two lane box girder superstructure supported by Y-shaped columns. When the project finally went to design, the open Y's must have made the designers nervous, so they filled them in. My experience as a bridge engineer is that you do the best you can on the parts of a project that you're given and accept that it is a very collaborative effort.
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Los Angeles County, California Bridges: 51st Street Overcrossing on the Harbor (110) Freeway by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Thursday, April 23, 2015

Shasta County, California Bridges: Boulder Creek Bridges (2)

April 2015 (41.01611 Degrees-122.40611 Degrees) Boulder Creek Bridges
The Highland Lakes Road Bridge (06C0349) is a 145 ft long bridge with a 82 ft long open spandrel arch span. Before I-5 was built in 1989 the Highlands Road Bridge along the west bank of the Sacramento was how travelers drove across Boulder Creek. The I-5 Bridges (06 0193L/R) are two four span, 668 ft long cast-in-place prestressed box girder bridges. They cross over the Sacramento River, Boulder Creek, the Union Pacific Railroad, and the Highland Lakes Road Bridge.
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Shasta County, California Bridges: Boulder Creek Bridges (2) by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Shasta County, California Bridges: Boulder Creek Bridges (1)

April 2015 (41.01611 Degrees-122.40611 Degrees) Boulder Creek Bridges
Today's photo is of the Interstate 5 Bridges (06 0193L/R) towering over the Highland Lakes Road Bridge (06C0349).  I'd like to take dramatic photos of several bridges together, but it's hard when they're at different angles and in dense vegetation. I bought a drone to take better shots from above but I'm afraid I don't have the skills to prevent the plane from crashing into traffic.
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Shasta County, California Bridges: Boulder Creek Bridges (1) by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Shasta County, California Bridges: I-5 Bridges across the Sacramento River

April 2015 (41.0111 Degrees-122.4094 Degrees) Sacramento River Bridges
As I mentioned yesterday, Interstate 5 crosses the Sacramento River twice as it makes a big loop around some foothills. We are traveling into a mountainous region with Mount Shasta dominating the landscape to the north. Consequently, the Sacramento River Bridges and Overheads (06 0192L/R) are on very tall single column bents as they cross over the river and railroad. These bridges have four span prestressed cast-in-place concrete box girder superstructures and they were built in 1989. They're 863 ft long with a 240 ft long span over the railroad and river. The bridge soffit is 70 ft above the tracks. The normally wide Sacramento River looks like a meandering creek at this location.
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Shasta County, California Bridges: I-5 Bridges across the Sacramento River by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Monday, April 20, 2015

Shasta County, California Bridges: Antlers Railroad Underpass

April 2015 (40.8859 Degrees, -122.3839 Degrees) Antlers Railroad Underpass
The furthest north we got on this trip to Shasta County was to the Boulder Creek Bridge. It's over three hours each way, and so we only had a few hours to find and photograph a handful of bridges. Note how I-5 cuts across a big bend in the river in the Google earth photo below. This makes for some dramatic bridge photos as will be shown in the next few blogs.
Shasta County has some interesting bridges; the longest stress ribbon bridge in the U.S., a Calatrava bridge, and many tall railroad bridges around Lake Shasta. The tall piers and the rugged, mountainous setting enhances the attractiveness of these bridges. However, after photographing several railroad bridges without seeing any trains, I was beginning to wonder if these bridges were still in use. Therefore I was pleased to see a long freight train crossing over I-5 while we were driving past the Antlers Bridges (see photo above) on our way home.
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Shasta County, California Bridges: Antlers Railroad Underpass by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Sunday, April 19, 2015

Shasta County, California Bridges: Harlan D. Miller Bridges

April 2015 (40.9388 Degrees, -122.4232 Degrees) Harlan D. Miller Bridges
A couple of hundred yards from the abandoned US-99 Dog Creek Bridge is the I-5 Dog Creek Bridge (06 0027) that replaced it. The two bridges look similar, but the I-5 bridge was built in 1956 and the main span is 300 ft long. The US-99 Bridge is 256 ft long, it's more ornate, and it was built in 1927. It was abandoned but it can still be used by pedestrians. Both bridges are named after Harlan D. Miller, a state Bridge Engineer who died unexpectedly while working on the design of the US-99 Bridge. Harlan had similar goals to Oregon's Conde McCollough, another innovative bridge engineer who did beautiful things with reinforced concrete. Harlan designed the Van Duzen River Bridge, the Truckee River Bridge, and the previously studied Charlie Creek Bridge. More information on him is available from the Historical American Engineering Record.
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Shasta County, California Bridges: Harlan D. Miller Bridges by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Saturday, April 18, 2015

Shasta County, California Bridges: Dog Creek Bridges

May 2008 (40.93846-122.41860) Dog Creek Bridges
Our next stop was a little north of Lakehead where several creeks, a river, local and state highways, and the Union Pacific Railroad all came together. In the photo above (courtesy of AARoads) we see the abandoned Dog Creek (Harlan D. Miller) Bridge, a tall arch bridge built in 1927 which carried U.S. 99 before it was replaced by I-5. To the left is the U.P. Dog Creek Railroad Bridge, which is a continuous, two span plate girder bridge on a stone masonry pier and concrete abutments. We're standing on the Fender Ferry Bridge, a steel pony truss bridge with a timber deck over the Sacramento River.
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Shasta County, California Bridges: Dog Creek Bridges by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Friday, April 17, 2015

Shasta County, California Bridges: Union Pacific Railroad Lakehead Bridge across the Sacramento River

April 2015 (40.92625 Degrees-122.40447 Degrees) Lakehead Railroad Bridge
Continuing upstream along the Sacramento River we arrived at the Union Pacific Lakehead Bridge. As can be seen in the photo most of these bridges are connected to tunnels because the railroad was trying to keep the grade low while going through the mountains.
These railroad bridges have an odd hanger on the upstream side of the truss ends. Are they suppose to deflect debris away from the superstructure during flood stage?
We must be far enough away from the Shasta Dam that a bridge can cross the Sacramento River with a single 200 ft span, instead of the three spans that are at Doney Creek, and the six spans that are required at Salt Creek.
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Shasta County, California Bridges: Union Pacific Railroad Lakehead Bridge across the Sacramento River by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Thursday, April 16, 2015

Shasta County, California Bridges: Doney Creek Bridges (2)

April 2015 (40.88221 Degrees-122.38774 Degrees) UP Railway Bridge across Doney Creek 
Continuing north along the Sacramento River we arrived at the Doney Creek road and rail bridges. We last studied these bridges from the east side when we were standing on the Antlers Creek Bridge (which can be seen through the truss members of the railroad bridge.) It's an interesting vantage point to see truss from the approach of an adjacent road bridge. Note how the Warren truss tapers at the ends. Perhaps the taper was to match plate girder end spans which were eventually replaced by abutments on higher embankments.
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Shasta County, California Bridges: Doney Creek Bridges (2) by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Wednesday, April 15, 2015

Shasta County, California Bridges: Lakeshore Drive Bridge across Charlie Creek

September 2007 (40.86932 Degrees-122.39145 Degrees) Charlie Creek Bridge
Continuing north along the Sacramento River we arrived at the Charlie Creek Bridge (06C0054). This open spandrel arch bridge was built in 1926. It carries Lakeshore Drive over Charlie Creek near it's mouth with the Sacramento River. After the completion of the Shasta Dam, the deck was inundated and so they built a slab bridge on short pier walls on top of the deck to keep the traffic out of the water. It looks like the concrete slab was replaced by a timber stringer superstructure at some point. While driving across the bridge I didn't notice that I wasn't driving on the original arch bridge's deck. They must have raised the approaches slightly to accommodate the higher deck.

I didn't photograph it, but a few hundred yards away is the Union Pacific Sacramento Arm Bridge. It looks similar to yesterday's Salt Creek Bridge with a deep 3-span Warren truss over high concrete piers across the Sacramento River. Please visit The Bridgehunter website, which has several photos of it.
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Shasta County, California Bridges: Lakeshore Drive Bridge across Charlie Creek by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Shasta County, California Bridges: Salt Creek Railroad Bridge

April 2015 (40.84367 Degrees-122.35583 Degrees) Salt Creek Bridge 
The Salt Creek Bridge is typical of the Union Pacific Railroad bridges around Shasta Lake, with a deep Warren truss built in 1940 to cross the dammed lake on tall concrete piers with the shorter piers from the previous bridge sitting beside them. The truss bridge is composed of four 200 ft long spans with plate girder approach spans on both sides. The effect of the recent drought is apparent by the water stains on the piers showing the previous water depth.
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Shasta County, California Bridges: Salt Creek Railroad Bridge by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Monday, April 13, 2015

Shasta County, California Bridges: Pit River Bridge (2)

April 2015 (40.7601 Degrees, -122.3182 Degrees) Pit River Bridge
We drove north from Redding to look at the bridges around Lake Shasta. We had previously studied the Pit River Bridge a couple of weeks ago. It's unusual because it carries a highway on the top deck and a railway on the bottom deck. It was built by the US Bureau of Reclamation as part of the Shasta Dam Project and given to California's Division of Water Resources (DWR) to maintain. The DWR would like to give it to Caltrans.

Dams are controversial because of their negative effect on the people (and animals) whose homes are near the river. Every river coming out of the Sierras in California has been dammed except for the Smith River near the northern border.

Eric Sakowski wrote that the Pit River Bridge would be the tallest railroad bridge in the U.S. if you measured from the riverbed. The bridge is in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest and Recreation Area. When we drove down a one-lane dirt road to take this photo we saw many people hiking, picnicking, and enjoying the near wilderness.
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Shasta County, California Bridges: Pit River Bridge (2) by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Sunday, April 12, 2015

Shasta County, California Bridges: Anderson Cottonwood Irrigation District Flume

(40.44136 Degrees, -122.30171 Degrees) Anderson Flume
Instead of vehicles, today's bridge carries water. The Anderson Cottonwood Irrigation District's (ACID) canal carries water from a stream in the hills for 1250 ft over wetlands and then back into a continuation of the stream. The bridge is composed of an 8' by 5' concrete box supported by open spandrel arch spans. The flume was built in 1918 and it's still working, but it's in desperate need of repairs. Walking along the flume we could see that the concrete had spalled off in many places, the rebar was corroded, and water was leaking, especially at the joints between arch spans.
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Shasta County, California Bridges: Anderson Cottonwood Irrigation District Flume by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Saturday, April 11, 2015

Shasta County, California Bridges: Cypress Avenue Bridge across the Sacramento River

April 2015 (40.5721 Degrees, -122.3732 Degrees) Cypress Avenue Bridge
We continued downstream along the Sacramento River to the Cypress Avenue Bridge. It's a five span haunched girder bridge on pier walls built in 2011 (that replaced an older bridge). A placard on the west (far) abutment shows the City of Redding is the owner, T Y Lin was the designer, Parsons Brinkerhoff (PB) was the project manager, and Kiewit was the contractor. The project cost $72 million but there were 40 claims from Kiewit including an $18 million claim due to problems driving the temporary steel casings for the large diameter shafts that support the bridge. PB was in charge of resolving the claims.

The aesthetic features include haunched girders and oversize pier walls supporting decorative pylons above the deck. The bridge has attracted many homeless people who live in a tent city under the easternmost approach span (on the near bank in the photo).
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Shasta County, California Bridges: Cypress Avenue Bridge across the Sacramento River by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Friday, April 10, 2015

Shasta County, California Bridges: Route 44 Bridge across the Sacramento River

May 2011 (40.586 Degrees, -122.368 Degrees) Route 44 Bridge
Today's bridges cross just south of a bend in the river and just west of a big cloverleaf interchange in Redding. The Route 44 Sacramento River Bridges (06 0206) are four span cast-in-place box girder bridges on shafts that were built in 2007. The bike trail continues under the bridges and around some rock slope paving to protect the embankment from scour. Architectural features include a decorative railing, a balcony over the river, and tall lampposts with a floral appearance.
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Shasta County, California Bridges: Route 44 Bridge across the Sacramento River by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.