Solano County, California Bridges: Benicia Martinez Bridges across Carquinez Strait

January 2014 (38.0424 Degrees, -122.1225 Degrees) Benicia Martinez Bridges

At the east end of the Carquinez Strait are the three Benicia Martinez Bridges (carrying I-680 between the cities of Benicia and Martinez). The photo above shows the new northbound Benicia Martinez Toll Bridge, a segmentally constructed prestressed concrete box girder bridge. I'm standing on the north side of the Strait photographing this bridge with a telephoto lens that considerably foreshortens the bridge. In the background is an oil refinery that includes a terminal in the Strait for tankers to offload their oil.

Besides the new northbound bridge, there is an old steel truss bridge that was retrofit with giant friction pendulum bearings in the 1990s (see photo below). These bearings reduced the inertia load to the piers and foundations, saving Caltrans the expense of retrofitting the foundation. Both the northbound bridge and the southbound retrofit are part of just a handful of bridges designed to remain in service after a large earthquake.

I had forgotten that we had once practiced our rope climbing techniques on a reinforced concrete leg of the retrofitted bridge (before the new bridge was built). The columns were so tall that we had to tie two static lines together and got to practice climbing above and below the knot as well as how to move from side to side around the column.

Between the northbound and southbound bridges is an old (1930) railroad bridge that still gets plenty of use from the BNSF, UP, and Amtrak trains that cross it every day. The bridge includes a lift span over the shipping channel. In fact, there were so many trains, that it was a hassle while they were trying to work on the retrofit because they had to clear the tracks every time a train came by. The photo below shows the railroad bridge before the northbound Benicia Martinez Bridge was constructed. A better view of the railroad bridge was in the June 5, 2001 blog.

Solano County, California Bridges: Benicia Martinez Bridges across Carquinez Strait by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Tokyo, Japan's Bridges: JR Etchujima Line Bridge across the Onagi Gawa

March 2012 (35.685 Degrees, 139.824 Degrees) JR Etchujima Line Bridge

After we turned around and began paddling east on the Onagi Gawa we came to a utility and a railway bridge. They must like trusses with triangular cross sections for water lines in Japan and they also seem to like Warren trusses for railway bridges.

The Onagi Gawa is about 36 meters between levee walls, which is an easy distance for almost any kind of one span bridge. Maybe trusses are inexpensive or perhaps rail and utility companies have a stockpile of them in their yards.

The JR Etchujima Railway Bridge is actually a two span bridge (about 54 m long) that was built in 1930. There are girders on the south end of the bridge to carry the tracks over the road alongside of the canal.

Tokyo, Japan's Bridges: JR Etchujima Line Bridge across the Onagi Gawa by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

Michigan's Bridges: Charlotte Highway Bridge at the Historic Bridge Park

August 2011 (42.291 Degrees, -85.115 Degrees) Charlotte Highway Bridge

I was excited to be traveling to the Historic Bridge Park in Calhoun County, Michigan. After all, how many parks are dedicated to bridges? However, I was disappointed after driving for several hours to find the park was closed. Apparently, there had been an oil spill in the Kalamazoo River and the park was closed while the guilty party (Enbridge) cleaned up their mess.

Since no one was around, I went into the park anyway. The first thing I saw upon entering was a bright red through truss, the Charlotte Highway Bridge. According to the Bridge Park Website, it is an eleven panel Whipple through truss bridge that was built in 1886. It's 173 ft long and 14.4 ft wide. In the photo above, we are looking at what they call the fishtail style floor beams. However, they are replicas since the original floor beams were severely rusted and had been replaced.

The Charlotte Highway Bridge was the fifth bridge to be brought to the park. A photo on the Historic Bridges Website shows that the bridge was in bad shape when it first arrived. According to the website it is the only remaining bridge in Michigan that was built by the Buckeye Bridge and Iron Works of Cleveland, Ohio. The bridge was originally over the Grand River in Danby Township, Ionia County according to the Michigan DOT website.

We'll take another look at this interesting bridge tomorrow.

Michigan's Bridges: Charlotte Highway Bridge at the Historic Bridge Park (1) by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Ecuador's Bridges: Puente Rio Sandima (1)

Let's study one last bridge by Walter Yanez.  To get to Puente Rio Sandima we drove on a dirt road into a rich agricultural region.  A woman charges a small toll to go down this road.  Walter said that he build the single-span, pony truss superstructure and that someone else built the abutments.  The superstructure was brought in by truck and placed on steel plate bearings on the abutment seats.  The bridge is about 12 meters long and about 3 meters wide. It has a steel riding surface and it was the only one of Walter’s bridges that I saw that was designed for light truck traffic.   Note that the deck has a textured surface as well as long slots to promote drainage.


Walter is a really hard worker and he is very proud of his bridges. That's Walter in the photo standing with his hand on his hip. He's traveled throughout Latin America, sometimes with his friend Toni Ruttimann and sometimes on his own, building bridges. Some of his bridges we're built after disasters like floods and some were built to help the rural poor. 

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

Mexico's Bridges: Puente Rojo del Ferrocarril (2)

Another view of the railroad bridge near Coquimatlan. This through steel truss is carried by big rocker bearings. Note the man under the bridge throwing a fishing net into the river.

Today I watched the film In the Pit by Juan Carlos Rulfo, which was recommended by Norrin in a comment to this blog. The film follows laborers and ironworkers building the elevated portion (the Second Deck) of Mexico City's Periferico Freeway.

The film referred to a Mexican legend that the devil requires a human life during the construction of every bridge to keep it standing.  Rulfo had a nice shot at the end of the film from a helicopter of mile after mile of freeway. It really gave a sense of how much work was required to build about 20 km of elevated expressway. The movie had lots of moments of humor, sweetness, frustration, and anger expressed by the construction workers that made the film engrossing. I think we're fortunate that the owners gave Rulfo access to the construction site.

You can rent the movie (it's available on Netflix) or you can look at photos of the freeway at skyscrapercity on the Internet.

Mexico's Bridges: Puente Rojo del Ferrocarril (2) by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

American River Bridges: Union Pacific Bridge

We're going to spend a couple of days studying a long viaduct that carries Amtrak and Union Pacific trains across the American River, just downstream from the Business 80 Expressway Bridge. This bridge includes a quarter mile long viaduct north of the river and a highly-skewed, five span steel Warren truss across the river.

I hadn't really thought about skewed truss bridges before. Because the trusses rest on skewed pier walls, the middle of each truss is built normal but the ends have triangular segments to match the skew.  Only the spans over the river are skewed. The rest of the bridge, including the trestle, have perpendicular supports.

A couple of years ago (on March 15, 2007) the timber trestle on the north side of the truss spans caught on fire. Sacramento had a couple of fire boats that raced to the truss bridge and sprayed it continuously while other firefighters concentrated on putting out the trestle fire. I guess the Sacramento Fire Department wasn't used to having fire boats because there were so many safety violations that the boats were taken out of service for three weeks after the fire. Apparently there was no oxygen tanks on the boat and so the firefighters were breathing toxic fumes for several hours. Also, the firefighters couldn't get their life vests on over their other equipment.  Fuel cans for the boat were sitting on the deck while they fought the fire. Also, the water pump for one boat was broken and the starter motor on the other boat was broken. Still, quick action by the firefighters probably saved the steel trusses and allowed Union Pacific to reopen the bridge eleven days after the fire.

We'll look at the timber trestle tomorrow.

American River Bridges: Union Pacific Bridge by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

American River Bridges: Foresthill Bridge (2)

I'm familiar with the Foresthill Bridge because that's where we used to practice our rope climbing techniques. There's a door in the west abutment that leads you down a  corridor (that smells strongly of bat guano) and you end up on the painter's walkway above the bottom chord of the bridge.

Its a good place to work because you are away from traffic and you don't have to interrupt your concentration to explain what you''re doing to passing pedestrians or cyclists. However, since 9/11 you better alert someone from Homeland Security that you'll be on the bridge or you'll find yourself surrounded by police in helicopters trying to find out what you're up to.

It's here that we practiced setting a traverse, different methods of getting off one tension line and onto another, and rescue techniques. Rope climbing is the only way that bridge engineers can inspect very tall towers, deep superstructures, and other places where a snooper truck or person-lift can't go.

Actually, rope climbing equipment and rope climbing techniques have changed a lot since this photo was taken. Nowadays, each climber belays him or herself and the harness is much lighter and less painful to wear. Still, the basics are the same. Each climber must always be securely attached to two ropes at all times.

We stopped climbing because we lost our leader (he took another job). I guess we were a bunch of followers and when our leader left, no one was willing to take over maintaining the equipment, planning the exercises, etc. Also, I stopped because as I got older, I lost the ability to lift myself up onto bridge members by just using my arms.

American River Bridges: Foresthill Bridge (2) by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

Vancouver's Bridges: Burrard Street Bridge

A couple of miles south of the First Narrows, the Burrard Inlet flows for two miles into False Creek. This is a popular recreation area with water taxis, museums, restaurants, etc.

False Creek is crossed by three bridges. The bridge near the mouth of the Creek is the Burrard Street Bridge. As can be seen in the photo, vehicles approach False Creek on short, haunched concrete girders. Next they cross over two  longer, Warren truss spans before crossing over the Creek on the deck of a through Pratt truss that allows smaller vessels passage under the bridge.

What is most notable about this bridge is the elaborate piers on each side of the Creek that include pylons supporting galleries which vehicles drive under when crossing the bridge. The galleries are carefully designed in an Art Deco/Colonial style with pastel colored tiles and a great deal of ornamentation. The  bridge's architect was George Lister Sharp and the engineer was John R. Grant. It was built in 1932 and is considered to be a historic structure.

The deck includes five vehicle lanes as well as narrow sidewalks/bicycle lanes that are partially blocked by the legs of the tower. This has led to a dangerous situation with many accidents. There have been efforts by the City Council to replace a vehicle lane with a bike lane, which has been met with resistance by drivers, store owners, realtors, politicians, etc. It has also been suggested to widen the sidewalks by cantilevering them out over the sides of the bridge, which has also been met with opposition. The land under the bridge is owned by the Squamish First Nation, which has their own concerns about any changes to the bridge.

I think the City of Vancouver has the most politically active populace (especially with regard to bridges) in the world!

Vancouver's Bridges: Burrard Street Bridge by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

Portland's Bridges: Burnside, Morrison, and Hawthorne Bridges

This photo was taken from the Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) on a hill west of the Willamette River. You take the Portland Tram up to the University Hospital.  I wondered how they handled emergencies, especially if the tram were to lose power, but apparently they have adequate back-up systems. In the foreground are three moveable bridges and above the horizon is Mount St. Helens, which was cone shaped before it erupted in 1980.

We studied the Burnside Bascule Bridge yesterday. The Morrison Bridge is also a bascule bridge, which means the center leaf spans meet at midspan and swing up and down with the help of motors and counterweights (behind the pivot point). The Hawthorne Bridge is the oldest vertical lift bridge still in operation in the United States. We will take a closer look at these two bridges in the next few days.

Portland's Bridges: Burnside, Morrison, and Hawthorne Bridges by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

Portland's Bridges: Broadway Bridge

About half a mile upstream from the Fremont Bridge (across the Willamette River) is the Broadway Bridge. It is an unusual Rall-type bascule bridge, which was chosen as the low bidder in a competition. However, the complex mechanism (it rolls back on rails as it lifts) has required frequent repairs and has been more expensive in the long run.

The bridge was designed by Ralph Modjeski and built by the Pennsylvania Steel Company over two years at a cost of $1.6 million. It had the world's longest double leaf bascule span when it was completed in 1913.

The main piers are reinforced concrete faced and topped with granite. The approach piers are 12 ft diameter concrete-filled steel pipes tied together with cross-bracing. A 278 ft double-leaf bascule span is supported on the main piers and crosses over the shipping channel. It provides 70 ft vertical clearance when closed and is opened about once a day. An operator's house is above each of the main piers (on the other side of the bridge). The approach spans are steel, camelback trusses. A reinforced concrete ramp on the west side goes over Union Station and carries traffic on and off the bridge. A similar ramp on the east side goes over Highway 99 and light rail tracks.

The bridge is 1742 ft long and 70 ft wide. It has two lanes of traffic in each direction and two broad sidewalks. It carries about 2700 vehicles and 1200 bicycles a day. It has been frequently repaired and renovated over the years. The concrete deck was replaced with a steel grating in 1948 to make it easier to lift. The steel deck was replaced with a fiber-reiforced composite material in 2005.

I'll just mention that Portland, Oregon is a very nice, attractive city with a very efficient transportation system. The area around the Willamette River is particularly pleasant and attracts large crowds on the weekends.

Portland's Bridges: Broadway Bridge by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.