Sunday, March 27, 2016

Marin County, California Bridges: S101-E580 Connector

June 2010 (37.9607, -122.5098) S101-E580 Connector
Back to San Rafael to look at a modern looking interchange. The S101-E580 Connector (27 0060F) is a 10 span prestressed continuous concrete box girder bridge that was built in 2009.
As the connector twists and turns it also widens from one to two lanes. The single column bents are supported on pile caps to resist service loads as well as strong shaking during earthquakes from the nearby San Andreas Fault.


Sunday, March 20, 2016

Marin County, California Bridges: Samuel P. Taylor State Park Bridges

February 2016 (38.0048, -122.7100) Samuel P. Taylor Park Bridges
There are a lot of bridges in Samuel P. Taylor State Park but I only stopped to photograph a few of them. The Shafter Bridge (27P0039) is a single span prestressed concrete box girder bridge that is 70 ft long and built in 1982. The nearby San Geronimo Creek Bridge is a two span steel through truss that carries pedestrians on top and two large diameter water mains below. There are many more park bridges in this area between Sir Francis Drake Road, Kent Lake, and the town of Lagunitas.
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Marin County, California Bridges: Samuel P. Taylor State Park Bridges by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Sunday, March 13, 2016

Marin County, California Bridges: Cross Marin Trail Bridge

February 2016 (38.02893, -122.72427) Cross Marin Trail Bridge
Today's bridge (27P0011) is a long pedestrian crossing over Lagunitas Creek and Sir Francis Drake Blvd. This bridge was built in 1980. It's composed of timber pony truss members above the deck and precast prestressed concrete girders below the deck. The bridge is part of the Cross Marin Trail which was built on the abandoned right-of-way of the North Pacific Coast Railroad. The Irving Railroad Bridge (shown below) was originally built at this location at the junction of Lagunitas and Irving Creeks.
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Marin County, California Bridges: Cross Marin Trail Bridge by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Sunday, March 6, 2016

Marin County, California Bridges: Mill Crossing Bridge across Lagunitas Creek

February 2016 (38.02893, -122.74210) Mill Crossing Bridge
A bridge has been at this location (in Samuel P Taylor State Park) since the 1870s. Samuel Taylor had built a resort in the area and the narrow-gauge North Pacific Coast Railroad made the resort a popular destination for people wishing to enjoy nature (see photo below).
The bridge was originally a through truss but at some point it was rebuilt as a Bailey Bridge with a timber deck. It's still used for (authorized) vehicular traffic and connects Sir Francis Drake Blvd. across the creek with the Cross Marin Trail.
The west side of Marin County is state parks and national monuments full of weekend visitors and stop and go traffic. It's pretty, but maybe too crowded to be very enjoyable. A nice exception is Point Reyes National Seashore where no cars are allowed.
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Marin County, California Bridges: Mill Crossing Bridge across Lagunitas Creek by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.