Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Yolo County, California Bridges: Winters Road Bridge across Putah Creek (1)

July 2013 (38.52000 Degrees, -121.96778 Degrees) Winters Road Bridge
Continuing west we came to the town of Winters (dominated by the Mariani Nut Company) and two old bridges across Putah Creek. The Winters Road Bridge (23C0243) is another closed spandrel arch, but unlike yesterday's bridge, this is a three span bridge supported on hexagonal piers. It's 447 ft long, with a 123 ft long main span, and only 24 ft wide. It's a road bridge that was built in 1907 making it the oldest bridge in Yolo County and eligible for the National Register.
I made a composite picture in Photoshop because the bridge was too big for me to capture in one shot, even with my 12mm lens. For some reason the've covered the underside with netting, probably to keep away the swallows, although I never heard of swallows being a danger to anything except insects. Maybe the swallow nests can damage such an old bridge?
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Yolo County, California Bridges: Winters Road Bridge across Putah Creek (1) by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Yolo County, California Bridges: County Route 91A Bridge across Dry Slough

July 2013 (38.54083 Degrees, -121.92889 Degrees) Dry Slough Bridge
Continuing west on Russell Blvd we reached one of the oldest bridges in Yolo County. The Dry Slough Bridge (22C0121) is a 60 ft long, closed spandrel arch carrying CR91A (just north of Russell Blvd) that was built in 1913. Its daily traffic is under 100 vehicles a day, the deck is less than 20 ft wide, and it's in 'Good' condition with a sufficiency rating of 62.7.
The bridge is a little hard to see because of all the surrounding foliage. Its closed arch walls have posts that extend above the deck to support the barrier rails and (unfortunately) the deck covered in asphalt.
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Yolo County, California Bridges: County Route 91A Bridge across Dry Slough by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

Monday, July 29, 2013

Yolo County, California Bridges: Stevenson Road Bridge across Putah Creek (3)

July 2013 (38.53682, -121.851245) Stevenson Road Bridge
The arches on the Stevenson Road Bridge are supported on tall two column bents and the deck is supported by transverse floor beams between girders that are extensions of the barriers.
A strange thing about this bridge is that it is decorated with lots of graffiti and also with personalized plaques at the bottom of each spandrel column. Not only are there plaques with bas reliefs of frogs, turtles, and fishes, but there are also plaques testifying to love of alcohol and of bicycles.
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Sunday, July 28, 2013

Yolo County, California Bridges: Stevenson Road Bridge across Putah Creek (2)

July 2013 (38.53682, -121.851245) Stevenson Road Bridge
The Stevenson Road Bridge is near the campus of UC Davis, which may explain why it so well decorated with graffiti. In fact, I noticed many bike trails and college-aged bicyclists when I visited this bridge.
The bridge is similar to the previously visited Cache Creek Arch Bridge, but this bridge is in slightly better condition. Also, the Cache Creek Bridge appeared to have precast approach spans while the Stevenson Bridge has cast-in-place approach spans.
The Stevenson Road Bridge is 298 ft long with two 108 ft long arch spans. The deck is in poor condition and too narrow so it was evaluated as structurally deficient. The bridge site is so densely vegetated, and with so much poison oak, that I wasn't able to take a good elevation view of the bridge.
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Yolo County, California Bridges: Stevenson Road Bridge across Putah Creek (2) by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

Saturday, July 27, 2013

Yolo County, California Bridges: Stevenson Road Bridge across Putah Creek(1)

July 2013 (38.53682, -121.851245) Stevenson Road Bridge
Continuing west along Putah Creek we came to the well-decorated Stevenson Road Bridge  (23C0092), which is a two-span through arch that was built in 1923. Putah Creek is on the Solano County/Yolo County Line, and so this bridge is owned by Solano County.
I've been importing my photos to Adobe Lightroom, which is a photo database program. It locates each photo on the map shown above. For instance, today's bridge is located at the orange marker that shows I took 24 photos at this bridge site.
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Yolo County, California Bridges: Stevenson Road Bridge across Putah Creek (1) by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

Friday, July 26, 2013

Yolo County, California Bridges: UC Davis Bridges across Putah Creek (3)

July 2013 (38.5403 Degrees, -121.7422 Degrees) Putah Creek Bridges
There are also a number of road bridges crossing over Putah Creek in the UC Davis Arboretum. As we walked along Putah Creek, we passed under the Cocker Lane Bridge (22I0003) a 3-span concrete continuous T-girder bridge that was built in 1955.
Next is the Mrak Hall Drive Bridge (22I0002), a single span T-girder bridge that was built in 1965.
As we continued our walk, we came to the 'A' Street Bridge (22I0001), a pretty single span open spandrel arch bridge that was built in 1965.
At the end of the Arboretum is the Putah Creek Pedestrian Undercrossing (22 0194), a single box tunnel, built in  2001that goes under some railroad tracks.
Finally, as we continued walking, we got to 1st Street and Richards Blvd and the Davis Underpass (22C0017), a very old steel stringer railroad bridge (1916) with a tunnel for bicycle and pedestrian traffic.
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Thursday, July 25, 2013

Yolo County, California Bridges: UC Davis Pedestrian Bridges across Putah Creek (2)

July 2013 (38.5401, -121.7438 Degrees) UC Davis Footbridges
The other footbridges at the east end of the UC Davis Arboretum are very similar to the ones we studied yesterday. The bridge shown above is composed of two upward-angled beams that are forced into compression by gravity. You need well-founded abutments to make these kinds of bridges work.
The bridge shown below is similar, but with a single bowed Glulam beam instead of two angled beams.
There is also an ordinary concrete T girder footbridge, but with nice handrails (shown below). There are also several road bridges that go over Putah Creek at the UC Davis Arboretum that we will study tomorrow.
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Yolo County, California Bridges: UC Davis Pedestrian Bridges across Putah Creek (2) by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Yolo County, California Bridges: UC Davis Pedestrian Bridges across Putah Creek (1)

July 2013 (38.53280 Degrees, -121.75553 Degrees) Putah Creek Pedestrian Bridges
Where Putah Creek runs through the University of California at Davis, they have created an arboretum with a variety of vegetation (and bridges) along the Creek. One of their favorite types of pedestrian bridge is an arch made of big Glulam beams supported on abutments that are too close together so they force the beams to bow upward. They have built two of these bridges across Putah Creek on the west side of the arboretum.

In the top photo the deck is built directly on top of the Glulam beams and so the pedestrian has to climb up and down the arch. On the bridge shown below they have built a separate horizontal deck supported by spandrel columns above the arch. This is a nicer but more expensive option since it is really two bridges; the bridge in the top photo supporting a timber girder bridge on columns.
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Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Yolo County, California Bridges: I-80 Bridges over Yolo Bypass

July 2013 (38.57056 Degrees, -121.59722 Degrees) I-80 Yolo Causeway
Continuing west on what  is now Interstate 80 we enter the Yolo Bypass (that was previously discussed when we visited the I-5 Bypass Bridge). This large basin fills with water during the winter and prevents flooding of East and West Sacramento. We can see where I-5 and I-80 cross the Bypass in the figure below.
The Yolo Causeway is actually two long viaducts (Yolo Causeway East (22 0045) and Yolo Causeway West (22 0044)) with a short embankment between them. The East Causeway is a 220 span prestressed concrete T girder bridge and the West Causeway is a 72 span prestressed concrete T girder bridge. These bridges were built in 1962.
The Causeway was retrofitted in 1997 with fiber reinforced polymer collars at the connection between the shafts and the shaft extensions. This should allow them to form strong pins during an earthquake that will prevent the connections from breaking. Also, every fifth bent cap had an extension built on the end to connect it to a large diameter shaft. During an earthquake these shafts will prevent the causeway from undergoing large displacements.
Similar to I-5 Bypass Bridge to the north, the I-80 Causeway also has a parallel railroad viaduct. However, these tracks carry Amtrak and Union Pacific freight trains and are in constant use.
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Monday, July 22, 2013

Yolo County, California Bridges: W80-E50 Connector Overcrossing

July 2013 (38.57583 Degrees, -121.56278 Degrees) W80-E50 Connector
Continuing west on US-50 we came to a cast-in-place concrete connector where US-50 connects to I-80. The W80-E50 Connector (22 0141F) is a 14 span (1576 ft long), continuous concrete box girder bridge that was built in 1969. It seems like all the expressways in Northern California were built in the 1960s.
A concrete superstructure provides a more satisfactory way to connect a concrete column since the connection can be made wider and taller, the main reinforcement can be well developed, and joint shear reinforcement can be provided. However, the one-way column flare is less than ideal since it reduces the effective length of the column and can turn it into a shear critical member. This is particularly true for the short columns at the ends of a connector ramp.
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Sunday, July 21, 2013

Yolo County, California Bridges: E50/Tower Bridge Gateway over US 50 and Jefferson Blvd

July 2013 (38.57667 Degrees, -121.52500 Degrees) 
Continuing north on Jefferson Blvd we arrived at the US50/Jefferson Blvd Interchange, that includes a long (1190 ft) connector ramp. The West Sacramento Off-Ramp (22-0129S) is a nine span steel stringer bridge that was built in 1966. This winding connector carries vehicles from the eastbound lanes of US-50 over Jefferson Blvd. and onto the Tower Bridge.
There are several interesting things about these connectors (besides how they can snake under and over freeways). Another interesting thing is how the lightweight steel superstructures are connected to the top of the concrete columns. Since the column reinforcement can't be developed into the superstructure, they must anchor the steel cross-braces into the columns.
Also, because the piers vary in height, most of the earthquake force will be carried by the shorter columns while the taller columns sway back and forth. Fortunately, there are no earthquake faults near West Sacramento.
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Saturday, July 20, 2013

Yolo County, California Bridges: Jefferson Blvd Bridges across the Sacramento River Deep Water Canal

May 2010 (38.561305 Degrees, -121.52829 Degrees) Jefferson Blvd Bridges
A little east of yesterday's Industrial Blvd Bridge and Overhead are the two Sacramento River Deep Water Canal Bridges (22C0168L/R). We previously studied these bridges back in 2010 when I was looking for movable bridges. However, the left bridge is a single span precast prestressed girder bridge that was built in 2005 and the right bridge (in the foreground) is a single span steel truss that was built in 1960 and improved in 2005. Apparently the movable bridge had been replaced since no ships travel through the east end of the canal (see Google earth photo below).
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Friday, July 19, 2013

Yolo County, California Bridges: Industrial Blvd Bridge across the Deep Water Canal

July 2013 (38.56083 Degrees, -121.53889 Degrees) Industrial Blvd Bridge and Overhead
From the Elk Slough Bridge we drove north on Jefferson Blvd until we arrived at the Port of Sacramento and the Palmidessi (Industrial Blvd) Bridge and Overhead (22C0158). This is a four span cast-in-place prestressed concrete box girder bridge. It's 543 ft long, 72 ft wide, and it carries four traffic lanes. The bridge was built in 1997, it carries 5000 vehicles a day and has a sufficiency rating of 98.5. Under the bridge we can see some silos where rice is stored for shipment.
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Yolo County, California Bridges: Industrial Blvd Bridge across the Deep Water Canal by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.