Santa Cruz County, California Bridges: Stockton Avenue Bridge across Soquel Creek

March 2014 (36.97243 Degrees, -121.95287 Degrees) Stockton Avenue Bridge

Continuing eastward we arrived at a 3-span haunched box girder bridge across Soquel Creek. The Stockton Avenue Bridge (36C0110) is 138 ft long with an 85 ft long center span. The bridge was designed by D.M. McPhetres and built in 1934 by the Leo Cardwell Construction Company. 

This bridge crosses the creek right at its mouth at the Pacific Ocean. The bridge is 30 ft wide including traffic lanes, shoulders, and sidewalks.  It's supported on wide pier walls with an architectural facade on the outside face that supports the lampposts. The haunched girders and open banister railing along with the piers and lampposts provides a pleasing appearance to this old bridge.

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

India's Bridges: Old Surajbari Bridge across the Gulf of Kutch in Gujarat

February 2001(23.200 Degrees, 70.716 Degrees) Old Surajbari Bridge

The Gulf of Kutch at Surajbari is a wide tidal flat. The old bridge across the Gulf was a haunched reinforced concrete bridge with drop in spans that was damaged by the 2001 earthquake. After the earthquake traffic continued on a single lane with alternating directions of traffic. Meanwhile, they hurried to complete the New Surajbari Bridge a mile to the north, which was also damaged by the earthquake.

India's Bridges: Old Surajbari Bridge across the Gulf of Kutch in Gujarat by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Australia's Bridges: Breakfast Creek Bridge in Queensland

March 2011 (-27.442 deg., 153.046 deg.) Breakfast Creek Bridge

I thought that this photo I took along the Brisbane River was of the Breakfast Creek Bridge but when I looked for it on the Internet, they showed a steel girder bridge from 1889. However after doing some more searching I found out that the steel bridge was removed in 1959, so I'm assuming that it was replaced with this three span concrete bridge.

Australia's Bridges: Breakfast Creek Bridge in Queensland by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Peru's Bridges: Puente Locumba

We've looked at bridges across several of the major rivers in Peru. Moving to the south we've crossed the Rio Camana, Rio Sihaus, Rio Chili, Rio Tambo, Rio Moquegua, Rio Locumba, and Rio Sama.

All these rivers flow out of the Andes and across parched desert on their way to the Pacific. When I was there in 2001, there was talk of damming these rivers and turning the desert into a breadbasket like in California. Hopefully, they won't be stealing water from the campesinos in the process. When this was done in California, the poor farmers in the Owens valley tried to stop them without success. At least according to the movie Chinatown.

I'm skipping several bridges on Tambo and Moquegua in order to look at a bridge on the Rio Locumba. Puente Locumba is a two-span continuous, haunched T girder reinforced concrete bridge on a pier wall and seat-type abutments. The deck is about 100 feet long by 30 feet wide and is supported on four girders.  Gabions are strung along the sides of the river for erosion control.

During the earthquake, the superstructure moved back and forth, damaging the abutments and the soil behind the abutments dropping the approaches several feet There were several optical cables on the bridge that were also damaged.

When we were at the bridge site about a month after the earthquake, a drilling rig was sitting on the north embankment suggesting that soil testing was being completed before repairs were made. Note the temporary bridge behind Puente Locumba consisted of gravel poured into the river as a driving surface with a culvert at the center to allow the water to flow.

I find this two span continuous bridge to be a very attractive solution when a river is too long to be spanned by a single span. The bridge is like a children's teeter-totter, balanced securely between the two abutments. I also like the green superstructure and striped barrier rail. To me this is a quintessential Peruvian bridge, elegant, simple, and attractive.

Peru's Bridges: Puente Locumba by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

Peru's Bridges: Puente Bajo Grau (2)

Here is another view (looking to the south) of Puente Bajo Grau. The haunch looks much bigger on the right side of the bridge. I wonder if there's a moment connection on the west side and its free to move on the east side?

I guess I didn't take this photo since I'm standing with my earthquake buddy Bill Byers in the picture. Bill was the chief bridge engineer of the Burlington Northern Railroad for many years, he was quite active, and helped develop the seismic criteria for AREMA, the railway engineering manual.

Puente Bajo Grau crosses the Rio Chili at a large skew as the road goes to the northwest and forms a triangle with La Marina Blvd and Ejercito Avenue (see Google Earth Map below).

Peru's Bridges: Puente Bajo Grau (2) by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

Peru's Bridges: Puente Bajo Grau (1)

I'm standing on La Marina Blvd. looking north at Puente Bajo Grau, Puente Miguel Grau, and the Nevado Chachani Volcano. The statue of Miguel Grau can be seen just above Puente Bajo Grau's west abutment.

Puente Bajo Grau is another single span, reinforced concrete, haunched girder bridge. It's also another bridge with a water main along the exterior girder. The bridge has end diaphragm abutments, short wingwalls, and steel rails.

Peru's Bridges: Puente Bajo Grau (1) by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

Peru's Bridges: Puente San Martin

Between Puente Bolivar and Puente Quinones is Puente San Martin. I decided to show this bridge, not because it is particularly interesting, but because two of the volcanoes that surround Arequipa are in the photo.

On the right is Volcan Misti with a conical shape as fine as Mt. Fuji. On the left is the Nevado Chachani Volcano with a complicated structure that includes several domes. Both volcanoes are about 6000 meters tall. Neither have erupted in a long time, but both are considered active.

San Martin is a single span, reinforced concrete, haunched girder bridge carrying two lanes of traffic. If you look closely, you can see a water main being carried along the exterior girder, which ruins the appearance of the haunched girder.

Jose de San Martin was an Argentine general who helped liberate (along with Simon Bolivar) South America from Spain. San Martin Road goes east from Freedom of Expression Park (Parque Libertad de Expresion) across the Rio Chili, across La Marina Blvd, around Martinez Circle (Ovalo Martinez), to the Southern Institute (Instituto del Sur). Arequipa is called the 'White City' because of all the white rock that has been quarried from the surrounding mountains for churches and government buildings.

The Rio Chili is crossed by a variety of interesting bridges from it's source in the Cordillera Occidental Mountain Range until it empties into the Pacific at the Valle de Quilca. Unfortunately, I've only photographed a few bridges in the city. Perhaps one day, I can make a survey of all the interesting bridges in Peru or at least, all the bridges that cross the Rio Chili.

Peru's Bridges: Puente San Martin by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.