Calaveras County, California Bridges: Calaveras Cement Company Underpass

March 2013 (38.16194 Degrees, -120.64972 Degrees) Calaveras Cement Company Underpass

Today's bridge is the most iconic structure in Calaveras County. Its a long timber trestle bridge with a single span T girder frame over State Route 49. The bridge was once part of a railway line that carried the Southern Pacific railroad from Valley Springs to the cement plant south of San Andreas. More information on the cement plant can be found at the Stone Quarries and Beyond Website.

The Calaveras Cement Company Underpass (30 0039Z) has a 40 ft long span over the highway and it was built in 1935. The National Bridge Inventory/Uglybridges Website reports that it currently carries 6950 vehicles a day which seems much too high. That must be the number of vehicles that go under the bridge each day.

Calaveras County, California Bridges: Calaveras Cement Company Underpass by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

Calaveras County, California Bridges: Calaveritas Road Bridge across Willow Creek

April 2013 (38.17694 Degrees, -120.65000) Willow Creek Bridge

Continuing south from San Andreas on Calaveritas Road to the Willow Creek Bridge (30C0053). It's a 28 ft long single span reinforced concrete T girder bridge. It was built in 1925 and rebuilt in 1962, but it's hard to tell which parts are old or new. For instance, those big concrete blocks behind the concrete barrier look old and are probably from 1926. Perhaps the approaches are from 1962.

 This bridge is in fair condition, has a sufficiency rating of 75, and only carries 100 bridges a day

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

Calaveras County, California Bridges: California Street Bridge across San Andreas Creek

April 2013 (38.19694 Degrees, -120.67944 Degrees) San Andreas Creek Bridge

The next bridge is called a three span culvert by the National Bridge Inventory. However, to my mind a culvert has some earth between the roof and the roadway, Also, because it's 37 ft long, it's long enough to be called a bridge. I would call it a three span continuous slab bridge on pier walls with cutwaters. The handrail is a little disappointing though.

The California Street Bridge across San Andreas Creek is in the old gold mining town of San Andreas. It was built in 1953, it has a sufficiency rating of 83, and it carries 200 vehicles a day.

Calaveras County, California Bridges: California Street Bridge across San Andreas Creek by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.