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

August 2009 (34.1451 Degrees, -118.3409 Degrees) Los Angeles River Bridges

After the Los Angeles River flows past Sepulveda Dam it returns to a narrow channel and crosses under a bunch of nondescript bridges including the San Diego (405) and Ventura (101) freeways. Only when we approached the Hollywood Hills does the river get wider and the bridges become more interesting.

The West Olive Avenue Bridge (53C1098) is show below It's a 7-span steel stringer bridge that was built in 1935 and widened in 1975. It's most distinguishing feature are the beautiful sculpted dolphins on it's upstream side.

Los Angeles County, California Bridges: West Olive Avenue Bridge across the Los Angeles River by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Tuolumne County, California Bridges: James E. Roberts Bridge across the Tuolumne River

September 2014 (37.84167 Degrees, -120.37667 Degrees) State Route 120 Bridge

We're traveling east from Stanislaus County into the foothills of Tuolumne County. Today's bridge was designed by Caltrans' former Chief Bridge Engineer Jim Roberts. He often talked about the problems of analyzing a highly curved continuous steel girder bridge in the 1960s. After he died they named the bridge he was proudest of after him. 

The James E. Roberts Bridge (32 0018) carries State Route 120 across the Tuolumne River. It is a 1394 ft long six span steel girder bridge with 350 ft long spans over the river. The substructure is composed of single column bents with upside down triangular bent caps. At one time they were planning to build right and left superstructures but lack of funding or perhaps the Sierra Club prevented Caltrans from increasing the capacity of SR 120. All of these two lane roads carrying travelers in and out of Yosemite Park can try the patience of drivers.

Like many of the bridges in the Sierras the deck of the Jim Roberts Bridge is in bad shape. Deicing salts may have been used and chains and heavy trucks have exacerbated the deterioration of the deck. Caltrans is fortunate to have enough room to put another superstructure on the existing substructure while they repair or replace the old deck.

Tuolumne County, California Bridges: James E. Roberts Bridge across the Tuolumne River by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Tokyo Prefecture, Japan's Bridges: Keiyo Road Bridges across the Edogawa

September 2013 (35.7089 Degrees, 139.9154 Degrees) Keiyo Road Bridges

The day after the typhoon was sunny and cool. We walked back down the Edogawa (the boundary between Tokyo and Chiba Prefectures) past the Kuramae Dori Bridge and the Sobu Railway Bridge and eventually we arrived at the Keiyo Road Bridges. They must have built one bridge later as Keiyo Road became more congested. I'm guessing the newer bridge is on the pier walls, but it's hard to be sure.

The girder flanges on both bridges appear to be riveted, which means they're both fairly old. However, the elastomeric bearings on the bridge with hammerhead bents look in worse shape. Also, the bridge on pier walls is a continuous 880 ft long frame. The bridge on hammerhead bents is divided into two 550 ft long frames (see Google Earth photo below). I would imagine that longer frames came later.

Tokyo Prefecture, Japan's Bridges: Keiyo Bridge across the Edogawa by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Amador County, California Bridges: Sutter Creek Road Bridge across Sutter Creek

March 2013 (38.39889 Degrees, -120.77722 Degrees) Sutter Creek Road Bridge

Continuing east of the town of Sutter Creek on Sutter Creek Volcano Road we came to an old steel stringer bridge. This Sutter Creek Road Bridge (26C0041) was built in 1925 and widened in 1955. It's a continuous steel girder bridge composed of three 20 ft long spans on pier walls. It carries about 1450 vehicles a day and has a sufficiency rating of 61.3. Although the bridge is almost 90 years old, it is apparently ineligible for the National Register of Historic Places.

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