Santa Cruz County, California Bridges: North Aptos Underpass across State Route 1

March 2014 (36.97556 Degrees, -121.90556 Degrees) North Aptos Underpass

East of Capitola, the railroad line runs like a sine wave between Highway 1 and the Pacific Ocean before finally crossing the highway at a 52 degree skew on a two span through girder bridge. The North Aptos Underpass (36 0012) is a 147 ft long bridge that was built in 1946 and retrofitted in 1996. 

The plate girders sit on tall rocker bearings. It appears that the retrofit increased the abutment and pier wall seats so if the rocker bearings were to fall forward, the girders would still be supported.

Santa Cruz County, California Bridges: North Aptos Underpass across State Route 1 by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.