Santa Clara County, California Bridges: Piedmont Road Bridges across Upper Penitencia Creek

October 2007 (37.39167 Degrees, -121.84167 Degrees) Piedmont Road Bridges

The last bridges we looked at after the Alum Rock Earthquake were the Piedmont Road Bridges across Upper Penitencia Creek (37C0135L/R). These are modern (1975) three span slab bridges on reinforced concrete pier walls. We studied these bridges, but couldn't find any damage, and concluded that large 0.3 second accelerations are not indicative of bridge damage during earthquakes.

Santa Clara County, California Bridges: Piedmont Road Bridges across Upper Penitencia Creek by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Santa Cruz County, California Bridges: Cabrillo Highway Bridge across Soquel Creek and Wharf Road

March 2014 (36.98333 Degrees, -121.95833 Degrees) Cabrillo Highway Bridge

It took me several tries before I found a way under this big arch bridge that carries State Route 1 across Soquel Creek. The bridge is over 100 ft wide and includes four arch ribs that are 126 ft long that soar 50 ft above the creek. It was built in 1947 by Caltrans and seismically retrofitted in 1995.

The arch is just one span of the 324 ft long Soquel Creek and Wharf Road Bridge (36 0013) that includes several slab spans (see photo below). A careful retrofit would be required to ensure the large demands on the arch doesn't damage the short columns of the slab bridge.

Santa Cruz County, California Bridges: Cabrillo Highway Bridge across Soquel Creek and Wharf Road by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Amador County, California Bridges: State Route 104 Bridge across Sutter Creek

March 2013 (38.35500 Degrees, -120.93333 Degrees) Sutter Creek Bridge

As I've previously mentioned, Amador County is bordered by rivers and filled with creeks. We followed Sutter Creek to the west and it eventually flowed through the town of Ione. At Preston Avenue (SR104) on the east side of town is a three span continuous concrete slab bridge that crosses Sutter Creek on skinny pier walls. The bridge is 92 ft long, 52 ft wide, and was built in 1970. It carries 5100 vehicles a day and is in 'Good' condition with a sufficiency rating of 87.3.

Perhaps in acknowledgment to Ione's history as a gold mining town they've put stone facing stones on the concrete barriers (and an unattractive tall fence above the barrier).

Just west of the bridge is another one of those pony truss pedestrian bridges, which are apparently quite common, at least across Sutter Creek.

Amador County, California Bridges: State Route 104 Bridge across Sutter Creek by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.