Butte County, California Bridges: Poe Powerhouse Bridge across the North Fork of the Feather River

September 2015 (39.7278 Degrees, -121.4684 Degrees) Poe Powerhouse Bridge

Just north of Lake Oroville is the 'Big Bend' and several interesting bridges. Last week we looked at the beautiful Union Pacific North Fork Bridge. Today we're studying the nearby Poe Powerhouse Bridge. I previously mentioned all the dams (and powerhouses) along the North Fork of the Feather River. The only access to some of them are on dilapidated roads and bridges. The Poe Powerhouse is typical. You drive down a gravel road (Bardees Bar Road) full of switchbacks to the river and across an old truss bridge with weight restrictions that takes you to the powerhouse. The Poe Powerhouse consists of transformers and a 890 ft long penstock with a drop of 477 ft that produces 120 megawatts of electricity. The bridge and the powerhouse are owned by Pacific Gas and Power.

The Poe Powerhouse Bridge is 335 ft long with a single, 178 ft long deck truss span across the North Fork of the Feather River. The substructure consists of tapered concrete pier walls. The superstructure supports an 18 ft wide reinforced concrete deck that carries an unnamed road. The road is used by the powerhouse employees and by the occasional kayaker, although the many dams across the river must make kayaking a hassle.

Butte County, California Bridges: Poe Powerhouse Bridge across the North Fork of the Feather River by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.