Los Angeles County, California Bridges: Interstate 710/91 Interchange across the Los Angeles River

August 1999 (33.8763 Degrees, -118.1898 Degrees) Los Angeles River Bridges

Just downstream from the Atlantic Boulevard Bridge is an interchange that includes about eight bridges (N710 On-Ramp 53-2145S, Route 91 On-Ramp 53 2144K, S710-E91 Connector 53 2142F, etc.) across the Los Angeles River. Most of the bridges were built in 1971 and they're all steel girder or precast girder bridges.

The I-710 (Long Beach) Freeway follows the Los Angeles River until it makes a bend at Vernon. The city of Los Angeles has been making plans to put the I-710 underground or do something to help speed it north to Glendale and Pasadena. Unfortunately, all of these ideas are very expensive and complicated by all the faults running through the Los Angeles Basin.

Los Angeles County, California Bridges: Interstate 710/91 Interchange across the Los Angeles River by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Alameda County, California Bridges: East Bay Viaduct

June 2014 (37.82732, -122.29134) East Bay Viaduct

Another interchange, the I-580 to I-80 in Oakland. The East Bay Viaduct (33 0611L) is the tall connector shown above that goes over all the other bridges. It's a rare (in California) 51 span steel girder bridge, which was chosen so they could quickly assemble the superstructure over existing expressways. It was built in 1998 as part of the replacement for the damaged Cypress Expressway.

Alameda County, California Bridges: East Bay Viaduct by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Yolo County, California Bridges: E50/Tower Bridge Gateway over US 50 and Jefferson Blvd

July 2013 (38.57667 Degrees, -121.52500 Degrees) 

Continuing north on Jefferson Blvd we arrived at the US50/Jefferson Blvd Interchange, that includes a long (1190 ft) connector ramp. The West Sacramento Off-Ramp (22-0129S) is a nine span steel stringer bridge that was built in 1966. This winding connector carries vehicles from the eastbound lanes of US-50 over Jefferson Blvd. and onto the Tower Bridge.

There are several interesting things about these connectors (besides how they can snake under and over freeways). Another interesting thing is how the lightweight steel superstructures are connected to the top of the concrete columns. Since the column reinforcement can't be developed into the superstructure, they must anchor the steel cross-braces into the columns.

Also, because the piers vary in height, most of the earthquake force will be carried by the shorter columns while the taller columns sway back and forth. Fortunately, there are no earthquake faults near West Sacramento.

Yolo County, California Bridges: E50/Tower Bridge Gateway over US 50 and Jefferson Blvd by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.