Arch Bridges: Alsea Bay Bridge

Oregon is fortunate to have many lovely bays along its coast. It is also fortunate to have had Conde B McCullough as the chief bridge engineer when US101 was being constructed during the Great Depression. As a result, there are a dozen beautiful bridges crossing the rivers and bays along Oregon's coast.

However, when the existing Alsea Bay Bridge began to deteriorate due to the saltwater environment, an equally handsome and innovative bridge, designed by Semyon Treygor at HNTB was built in 1991. The main span is a 450 foot long reinforced concrete through-arch with long approaches supported on 'Y' shaped piers. The replacement bridge was built with a thicker concrete cover to resist the salt-water spray. All that is left of Conde McCullough's original bridge are the concrete viewing platforms at each end of the new bridge.

Arch Bridges: Alsea Bay Bridge by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.