Plumas County, California Bridges: Rock Creek Bridges

September 2015 (39.8988 Degrees, -121.3589 Degrees) Rock Creek Bridges

The Union Pacific Railroad and California Route 70 run parallel to each other for about 50 miles along the North Fork of the Feather River. A few miles past the Pulga Bridges (where Rock Creek flows into the North Fork) is another juxtaposition of highway and railway bridges.

The highway bridge (09 0002) is a 330 ft long, three span river crossing with a 180 ft long Parker through truss center span across the North Fork. It was built in 1936 but the substructure was rebuilt on 2000. Those extra long bent caps look like they were built to carry a future widening (see photo below).

The railroad crosses Rock Creek with a steel trestle bridge that includes a Warren truss main span. We are going to see a similar style of adjacent railway and highway bridges as we continue to travel upstream along the Feather River through Plumas County.

Plumas County, California Bridges: Rock Creek Bridges by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Butte County, California Bridges; Upper Thermalito/Table Mountain Bridges across the Feather River

August 2015 (39.51772 Degrees, -121.55023 Degrees) Feather River Bridge

Just downstream of the Oroville Dam are the Upper Thermalito/Table Mountain Bridges. The truss bridge was built in 1907 and carried Business State Route 70 until it was replaced by the adjacent box girder bridge in 1982 (the older bridge was retained for pedestrian and bicycle use).

The history of bridges across this part of the Feather River is a history of floods. The first bridge at this site was a covered bridge that was built in 1870 (see photo above courtesy of CDWR). Truss spans were eventually added to the bridge, but it was destroyed by flooding in 1907. It was replaced by the current truss bridge, which was inundated (but not damaged) by flooding in October of 1962, just before the dam was built.

The 1907 bridge is a 665 ft long, three span Parker (camelback) through truss bridge, with a 215 ft long river span. The adjacent Feather River Bridge (12C0221) is a five span prestressed concrete continuous box girder bridge with a slightly longer (218 ft long) center span. I like how both bridges have the same hexagonal-shaped concrete piers. In the photo above we can see Table Mountain in the distance. Thermalito is a town just west of Oroville. There's a fish hatchery and a smaller dam just below Table Mountain in the photo.

Butte County, California Bridges; Upper Thermalito/Table Mountain Bridges across the Feather River by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Sonoma County, California Bridges; Lambert Road Bridge across Dry Creek

September 2014 (38.65389 Degrees, -122.92778 Degrees) Dry Creek Bridge

Crossing over Dry Creek, The Lambert Road Bridge (20C0248) is a 190 ft long Parker truss. It was built in 1915 and is apparently going to be replaced as soon as funds become available. The bridge carries one of the few east-west roads through the Alexander Valley, it's rated as structurally deficient, and 1400 vehicles cross the bridge every day. There are many more photos of the bridge on the Bridgehunter Website.

Sonoma County, California Bridges; Lambert Road Bridge across Dry Creek by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Sonoma County, California Bridges: Annapolis Road Bridge across the Gualala River

September 2014 (38.66583 Degrees, -123.31278 Degrees) Gualala River Bridge

Continuing west on Skagg Springs Road we arrived at a location with several older truss bridges. The Annapolis Road (Clark Crossing) Bridge (20C0141) over the Gualala River is a 181 ft long Parker through truss that was built in 1920 and rehabilitated in 1971. Despite the renovation it has a sufficiency rating of only 27.6 and carries over 800 vehicles a day. 

Sonoma County, California Bridges: Annapolis Road Bridge across the Gualala River by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Sonoma County, California Bridges: Guerneville Bridge across the Russian River (2)

August 2014 (38.50096 Degrees, -122.99556 Degrees) Guerneville Bridge

Here's the view from the deck of the Guerneville Bridge. On the Historical Bridges Website they criticized the 'cyclone fencing,' which was erected when they converted the bridge to pedestrian use. I would imagine the lampposts were also put on the deck after the bridge was retired from 'active' service. You can appreciate how long these Parker truss spans are in this view looking down the bridge deck. The vertical clearance is 16 ft and so the truss must have about a 22 ft section depth, which provides a 180 ft length (with additional truss members at mid-span). The depth becomes higher and higher to increase the length until a truss span is no longer economical at about 600 ft.

Sonoma County, California Bridges: Guerneville Bridge across the Russian River (2) by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Sonoma County, California Bridges: Guerneville Bridge across the Russian River (1)

August 2014 (38.50096 Degrees, -122.99556 Degrees) Guerneville Bridge

The Guerneville Bridge (20 0091) used to be the State Route 116 Bridge across the Russian River. It replaced an even older truss bridge in 1922 and it was replaced by a concrete box girder bridge in 1998. This bridge is still in good shape but it's only 17 ft wide and not appropriate for two way traffic.

The Guerneville Bridge is composed of concrete T-beam approach spans on pile extensions and three Parker truss main spans on pier walls. As we've discussed before, a Parker truss is a Pratt truss with a rounded upper chord and with more segments than on a Camelback truss. If you look closely at the above photo you can see the trusses are composed of 10 panels with 10 top chord segments. The trusses include 'X' bracing across the middle panels, some laced truss members, and also cross bracing at the end of each panel with 'X' bracing. The bridge is 980 ft long with 180 ft long truss spans.

Sonoma County, California Bridges: Guerneville Bridge across the Russian River (1) by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Sonoma County, California Bridges: Wohler Road Bridge across the Russian River (2)

August 2014 (38.50778 Degrees, -122.88278 Degrees) Wohler Road Bridge

The Russian River is in trouble. California is in the middle of a drought and so dams were built to keep water in the river including this one just upstream of the Wohler Road Bridge. 

Sonoma County, California Bridges: Wohler Road Bridge across the Russian River (2) by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Sonoma County, California Bridges: Wohler Road Bridge across the Russian River (1)

August 2014 (38.50778 Degrees, -122.88278 Degrees) Wohler Road Bridge

We're now going to switch from studying arches to studying trusses. We've reached the wide Russian River, which is crossed by several long truss bridges. For some reason, people in San Francisco love the Russian River and treat it like the ocean, sunning themselves along its banks.

The Wohler Road Bridge (20C0155) includes three long (230 ft) truss spans and concrete approach spans, but it's only 16.7 ft wide. Drivers have to patiently watch and wait for traffic to clear before trying to get across before the next car arrives. They say the bridge only carries 500 vehicles a day, but that must be on weekdays. When we arrived on a Sunday it seemed like there was non-stop traffic on this bridge.

The Wohler Road Bridge was built in 1921 by the American Bridge Company of New York City. According to Historic Bridges each Parker through truss span is composed of 10 pin-connected panels. The bridge is eligible for the National Register of Historic Records but it's also supposed to get a seismic retrofit whenever funds become available. The fragile laced members seem unsuited for much shaking. I just returned from looking at undamaged bridges after Sunday's M6.0 South Napa Earthquake. It was fortunate that there were no bridges that looked like the Wohler Bridge near Napa.

Sonoma County, California Bridges: Wohler Road Bridge across the Russian River (1) by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Sonoma County, California Bridges: Arnold Drive Bridge across Sonoma Creek

August 2014 (38.3508 Degrees, -122.5189 Degrees) Arnold Drive Bridge

I was about to call this bridge a Camelback truss until I read in the Bridgehunter that Camelback trusses have 5-sided upper chords, while today's bridge has a 7-sided top chord, making it a Parker through truss. The Arnold Drive Bridge (20C0213) sits on the edge of a large developmental center between Eldridge and Glen Ellen. We've traveled northeast from Petaluma and so this bridge crosses over the previously visited Sonoma Creek.

This area was called "Valley of the Moon' by the writer Jack London and is a major wine producing region. The bridge was built in 1930 and remains in 'good' condition but with a poor deck. It's the deck that goes first on bridges. Trucks keep getting heavier and older structures can't sustain all the traffic (14,000 vehicles a day).

The Arnold Drive Bridge is 140 ft long, 24 ft wide, but with a vertical clearance of only 12.7 ft. I'm surprised that the portal frames haven't been damaged by tall vehicles during the last 84 years. The bridge has a plaque that says that it's a Sonoma historic landmark. It also says that the bridge was designed by E. A. Peugh. I went online and found (on the Historic Bridges Website) that he (she?) had designed several other truss bridges in Sonoma County.

Sonoma County, California Bridges: Arnold Drive Bridge across Sonoma Creek by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Sonoma County, California Bridges: Watmaugh Road Bridge across Sonoma Creek

August 2014 (38.26583 Degrees, -122.46694 Degrees) Watmaugh Road Bridge

Continuing north along Sonoma Creek we arrived at the Watmaugh Road Bridge (20C0017). It's a three span bridge with a Parker through pony truss span over Sonoma Creek. Note the very large floor beams carrying the bridge deck. Every second floor beam is extra long to support a sloping transverse member that braces the truss. A plaque on a top chord mentions an award of merit that Sonoma League for Historic Preservation received in 1981 for their work to preserve this bridge. It has a sufficiency rating of only 4 out of 100 and I felt like I was risking my life standing on the narrow bridge deck because of the unending traffic.  The bridge was built in 1929, so it's 85 years old and functionally obsolete.

Sonoma County, California Bridges: Watmaugh Road Bridge across Sonoma Creek by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

San Joaquin County, California Bridges: Manthey Road Bridge across the San Joaquin River

April 2014 (37.78596, -121.30677 Degrees) Manthey Road Bridge

The Manthey Road Highway Bridge (29C0127) is composed of a pin connected (8 panel) Parker through truss span on the west side of the San Joaquin River and a single leaf riveted Strauss bascule span on the east side of the river. However, the counterweights have been removed from the bascule span, which can no longer move.

The two main spans are supported on pier walls and the approach (steel stringer) spans are supported on two-column bents. The bridge is 540 ft long with a 200 ft long main (through truss) span. 

This bridge was built in 1926 and it's in poor condition. The sidewalk (as previously mentioned) is covered in weathered plywood. When I tried to walk on it my boots immediately punched through it (luckily I was holding tightly to the railing). The trusses are covered in rust. This bridge has a low sufficiency rating (7.1) with the deck rated 'critical' and superstructure rated 'serious.' Manthey Road is used as a frontage road for I-5 and it had traffic on it while I was taking pictures. I noticed it was on the California Historical Bridge Site, so maybe it will soon get some much needed attention.

San Joaquin County, California Bridges: Manthey Road Bridge across the San Joaquin River by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

San Joaquin County, California Bridges: Peltier Road Bridge across the Mokelumne River

April 2014 (38.18889, -121.32194) Peltier Road Bridge

A little southwest of yesterday's bridge is a long slab bridge with a steel truss span across the Mokelumne River. We have looked at several other bridges crossing the Mokelumne in Amador and Calaveras Counties. It's a 95 mile long river that empties into the San Joaquin River at the border with Sacramento County. 

The Peltier Road Bridge (29C0037) is  an 881 ft long viaduct with a 152 foot long Parker camelback truss span across the Mokelumne River. The bridge is only 24 ft wide, it has a vertical clearance of 14.7 ft, and it was built in 1948. 

The bridge was closed in 1973 when the portal frame was struck by a truck carrying an oversized load on a trailer. According to the Lodi News-Sentinel the driver's insurance company agreed to pay for the repairs since the driver was driving without a permit. This was the only bridge over the Mokelumne for many miles and the bridge had to be closed for several months while repairs were made.

San Joaquin County, California Bridges: Peltier Road Bridge across the Mokelumne River by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Nevada County, California Bridges: Hirschdale Road Bridge across the Truckee River

December 2012 (39.3851 Degrees, -120.0885 Degrees) Hirschdale Road Bridge

Continuing east through the snow we arrived at Hirschdale Road north of I-80 where a new reinforced concrete box girder bridge crosses the Truckee River and an old truss bridge remains in place as a pedestrian bridge. According to the reliable Bridgehunter the old bridge is a Parker pin-connected through truss with a wooden deck. The 136 ft long single span bridge is only 14 ft wide and the Bridgehunter didn't provide a construction date for the bridge.

I was concerned about this bridge because a blog said that two deteriorated Hirschdale Road Bridges over the Truckee River and the Union Pacific Railroad might be torn down to build a bicycle trail from Tahoe City to Pyramid Lake. However, when I read more closely, I discovered they were talking about a pair of 1928 vintage T-girder bridges south of I-80 and that the bridges were probably in good enough shape for bicycle traffic.

Nevada County, California Bridges: Hirschdale Road Bridge across the Truckee River by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License.