Yolo County, California Bridges: County Road 158 Bridge across Elk Slough

July 2013 (38.34167 Degrees, -121.58111 Degrees) Elk Slough Bridge

The County Road 158 (Cortland Road) Bridge (22C0025) is an eight span continuous reinforced concrete slab on pile extensions. The superstructure appears to be so thin that it's amazing the bridge can carry heavy trucks! The spans are 28 ft long and 32.5 ft wide. Each bent is composed of four piles and the outside piles are battered. The bridge is owned by Yolo County and built in 1959.

In the Google earth photo above we can see the Yolo County border (in green) following the Sacramento River along its east boundary before going southwest along Sutter Slough and then straight west to Shag Slough (just past the Deep Water Canal that goes northeast to the Port of Sacramento). Today's bridge crosses over Elk Slough, which empties into Sutter Slough.

Yolo County, California Bridges: County Road 158 Bridge across Elk Slough by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

Yolo County, California Bridges: Sutter Slough Road Bridge

July 2013 (38.32783 Degrees, -121.57658 Degrees) Sutter Slough Road Bridge

Yolo County includes a narrow segment along the Sacramento River. Surprisingly, there are no bridges across this part of the Sacramento River (the Paintersville Bridge crosses the Sacramento River just south of Yolo County). At the southeastern tip of Yolo County the border switches from the Sacramento River to Sutter Slough and it's crossed by the Sutter Slough Bridge.

We previously studied the Sutter Slough Bridge (24C0011) during a series of blogs about movable bridges in 2010. Sutter Slough branches off the Sacramento River and the bridge allows vehicles to travel on the west side of the Sacramento River by crossing over the Sutter Slough Bridge. I believe that this bridge as well as most of the other movable bridges on the Sacramento River are now fixed spans since ship travel has moved to the new shipping channel a little west of the Sacramento River.

They say the bridge was built in 1939 and improved in 1970, but I don't know what kind of improvements were made unless it was to remove the motor from the swing mechanism.

According to the Bridgehunter, it is a Warren through truss center pivot swing span bridge. As I've mentioned before, swing spans are the least liked movable bridge since the pivot sits in the middle of the channel. Also this bridge allows less than 11 ft of vertical clearance above the river (and 14.8 ft of vertical clearance below the cross-bracing).

Yolo County, California Bridges: Sutter Slough Road Bridge by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

Yolo County, California Bridges: Pioneer Memorial Bridge across the Sacramento River

July 2013 (38.57111 Degrees, -121.51611 Degrees) Pioneer Memorial Bridge

We've been working our way downstream along the Sacramento River, which is the eastern border of Yolo County. About 1/2 a mile south of yesterday's 'I' Street Bridge is the big (39 span) Sacramento River Viaduct (24 0004L/R), which is the principal interstate arterial (6346 ft long) over streets, highways, railroad tracks, and the Sacramento River. It includes connector ramps on both sides of the river (see figure below). We used to practice rope climbing on the part of the bridge over the Caltrans' maintenance yard on the east side of the river.

Most of the Sacramento River Bridges have an official and popular name and the Sacramento River Viaduct is commonly referred to as the Pioneer (or Pioneer Memorial) Bridge. It's a haunched (for the long spans over the river) steel girder bridge. Steel must have been a popular material for Sacramento River crossings in the 1960s. The bridge carries over 100,000 vehicles a day which has worn down the concrete deck (the current deck condition is rated poor (3 out of 9)). 
The part of the bridge across the river in Yolo County crosses an empty yard while the city of West Sacramento attempts to develop this area. The city of Sacramento on the east side of the river has similar hopes and aspirations for their riverfront.

Yolo County, California Bridges: Pioneer Memorial Bridge across the Sacramento River by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.