El Dorado County, California's Bridges: Forni Rd Bridge across Weber Creek (3)

February 2013 (38.714 Degrees, -120.828 Degrees) Forni Road Bridge

Another photo of the underside of the Forni Road Bridge with its flat deck supported by big and baby arch ribs. You can see the outlines of the thin strips of wood used to form the concrete. Apparently, this type of bridge without girders or floor beams was the beginning of a change in structural design. It's in pretty good shape for being almost 100 years old.

I drove back to the Forni Road Bridge today and I was happy to see the broken barrier rail had been repaired. Probably it was a terrible liability and a potential lawsuit to have a bridge under traffic without a barrier. Not that this barrier is even legal. Bridges are supposed to have a New Jersey type barrier that pushes cars back onto the road. Caltrans has spent a lot of time and money trying to make New Jersey barriers with openings at the top so drivers can enjoy ocean views. The driver who hit this barrier was lucky he or she didn't go straight into the river.

A last photo of the repaired bridge somewhat obscured by a lens flare. It's difficult to find a place to stand where you can see the whole bridge and so I'm sometimes forced to face into the sun to take a picture.

El Dorado County, California's Bridges: Forni Rd Bridge across Weber Creek (3) by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.