Butte County, California Bridges: State Route 162 Bridge across Canyon Creek

August 2015 (39.58518 Degrees, -121.43086 Degrees) Canyon Creek Bridge

If the scenery is nice, the bridge's appearance becomes less important. Tall piers and a long straight superstructure suffice to make the 50 year old Canyon Creek Bridge look good crossing this rugged landscape.

The Canyon Creek Bridge (12 0184) is a 780 ft long, four span, steel girder bridge, on tall concrete piers. The bridge has a narrow (28 ft wide) deck without shoulders. The barrier includes a narrow sidewalk that pedestrians can use to avoid traffic (1500 vehicles a day). A short radius curve and considerable terracing was required to squeeze State Route 162 along the east side of the creek.

Butte County, California Bridges: State Route 162 Bridge across Canyon Creek by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Los Angeles County, California Bridges: I-710 Bridge across the Los Angeles River

August 1999 (33.9358 Degrees, -118.1752 Degrees) Los Angeles River Bridges

After walking past the UPRR Bridge I came to the I-710 (Long Beach Freeway) Bridge (53 0828). It's a four span steel girder bridge on an opposite skew to the UPRR Bridge (seen in the background of today's photo). It was built in 1955 and retrofitted for earthquakes in 1996. The bridge has tall narrow pier walls but the ends of the girders are connected to hangers cantilevered past the pier.

It seems like city engineers get the more exciting bridge projects while state engineers end up with more mundane highway bridges. A problem with steel bridges on skews is that the cross-bracing sometimes doesn't meet from girder to girder causing fatigue cracks over time.

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