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The Albion River Bridge Deficiencies

Caltrans proactively maintains and invests in California’s transportation system to ensure a safe and reliable state transportation system. Over 3,000 vehicles per day cross the Albion River Bridge to reach places of employment, goods and services, tourist destinations, schools, and health and emergency services. The proposed project is needed to address the existing bridge’s functional, safety, and structural deficiencies.

Functional

  • The bridge is functionally obsolete and does not meet minimum design standards.
  • The bridge lacks continuous, safe, and separate access for bicyclists and pedestrians.
  • The bridge is the sole crossing over the Albion River along SR 1 and is an important route for tourism and intraregional travel along the Mendocino Coast. If a full bridge closure is necessary for inspection, maintenance, repairs, or safety reasons, traffic must be detoured around the closure. A detour using state routes would be approximately 126 miles.
  • The bridge requires ongoing preventative maintenance. Caltrans anticipates a continuous program to paint the steel deck truss approximately every 5 years and to replace timber fasteners, the bolted connections, and hardware throughout the entire timber substructure approximately every 2 years.
  • The bridge’s preservative-treated timbers are in a state of ongoing deterioration, which presents a risk of contaminants leaching into the soil and water beneath the bridge.

Safety

  • The bridge does not meet modern seismic standards, which indicates a higher probability of damage and closure from a seismic event.
  • The bridge has an external wooden barrier rail incapable of resisting current vehicle impact loading requirements.

Structural

  • The bridge is fracture-critical due to the riveted steel deck truss main span’s lack of redundancy. If key structural connections or components are compromised, the bridge could fail during a seismic event or under heavy cyclical loads.
  • The bridge was designed to carry lighter trucks (e.g., 15-ton trucks). Heavy loads can add strain and advance the structural weakening of the bridge. Due to continued deterioration, the bridge’s load rating would be reduced over time.
  • Due to the many closely spaced bridge supports within the tsunami inundation zone, the bridge is susceptible to tsunami damage, including debris loading or possible collapse.

Views of the Current Bridge

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