CA 101 in Iowa ??

[Jardine]

Here is some interesting trivia:

164 feet of California 101 is in western Iowa! 

(IANMTU)

In the late 40s, traffic increases made it necessary for California to update many bridges on Highway 101.  The bridge over the Santa Inez River near Buellton was one of them.  Due to shortages still extant following WWII, the bridge was not scrapped, it was disassembled and wound up in Lincoln Nebraska.  In the early 50s, heavy rains caused the loss of several bridges in Harrison county Iowa, and they were able to acquire 4 spans (AFAIK) of the 7 spans salvaged at Buellton.

The 4 spans were placed as follows:

One crossed the Harrison/Monona Ditch (actually the West Fork of the Little Sioux River, and yes there is quite a story there!) on a county gravel road on the Harrison, Monona county line.  Another replaced a span on the lower Soldier River, a few miles NE of Mondamin. The bridge at that location was itself moved about a mile upstream to replace a flood destroyed bridge.  The bridges were arranged that way to have a higher load capacity on the busier road.  The Buellton spans were also 22 feet wide, wider than the existing bridge by several feet.

Another span was placed about 8 miles upstream on the Soldier River at Pisgah, on the road that led to the towns of Little Sioux and River Sioux Iowa.

The forth was located on what is now called Harrison County Road F14, over Willow Creek, around 4 miles west of Dunlap.

The bridges served longer in Iowa than they did in California.  The Pisgah span was deemed unsafe for tour buses and replaced in the early 2000s.  The problem was more due to the plank deck rotting beneath the asphalt surfacing than deficiency in the fine Carnegie Steel frame of the bridge.  It was replaced with a dreadfully boring 3 span concrete bridge that looks like all the others of it's type.

The Missouri River Flood of 2011 caused a prolonged high water condition on the Lower Harrison/Monona Ditch, and the river banks saturated eventually (the flood persisted over 100 days!) and sloughed into the ditch.  Unfortunately, this dislodged the SE abutment of that span and the bridge was cut up and scrapped.

The 3rd span, NE of Mondamin, was disassembled in 2012, and replaced with another dull as toast cement bridge.

The 4th one however, is in excellent condition.  It alone, of the 4 in the county, has a concrete deck.  I am just speculating, but the Willow Creek location may have had some wildfire risk, and the plank decking might have been a problem.  I have looked that bridge over quite a bit, even was under it, and it appears to be in pretty good condition.  Due to it's location on a county gravel, it has never been deiced with salt, and the locals have managed to not bang it up too badly with oversize farm machinery.  Currently, the county has no plans to replace it.  The next Willow Creek crossing to the south is a small dam and spillway structure, with no vehicle height constraints and a much wider roadway.

The Mondamin bridge replacement span is, as of today, not finished yet, the builders have the span complete, but are still building up the north approach.  Due to the terrain, it is taking ~3500 loads (15 yards each) to do each approach.  Also,a small portion of the California bridge was salvaged; the distinctive railings were removed and maybe recycled in a nearby park for crowd control and safety.

[NE2]

That's pretty close to Quebec Route 366

[Jardine]

And here (if it all works) is a predemolition picture of our interesting bridge:

[hotdogPi]

CA 101 doesn't exist. It must be US 101.

[Jardine]

Also,

please note the distinctive railings, the portal diagonal bracing, the deck width of 22 feet, the length of 164 feet, and the steel is stamped Carnegie.  Also, when originally built (before 1920!) the railings were painted white, some traces of that paint remained on this bridge and presumably the others.

Of the 7 spans built in California, 4 are accounted for as having wound up in Iowa.  3 spans remain unaccounted for to this day.  There is interest if they were also salvaged and relocated, or if they were scrapped and turned into paperclips.

If anyone knows of a bridge span identical to the one pictured above, we'd really appreciate knowing it's whereabouts.  Thanx!

[Jardine]

Thanx for the update on the route number.  We've all heard of 'California 101', hence the intense interest locally in the bridges history.

Still amazing at least 4 spans wound up in bucolic western Iowa.

[Henry]

Thanx for the update on the route number.  We've all heard of 'California 101', hence the intense interest locally in the bridges history.

Still amazing at least 4 spans wound up in bucolic western Iowa.

It probably is because one can imagine an old-style US 101 shield with the word CALIFORNIA above it, when state names appeared on all US shields.

Still, interesting find!

[707]

CA 101 doesn't exist. It must be US 101.

In all technicality, CA 101 does exist. It's just covered up by US 101 as per state law.

[Jardine]

And a little update:

The new replacement span over the Soldier River NE of Mondamin has been completed.

Curiously, the US 101 span it replaced was 22 feet wide and the new bridge is 24 feet wide.  Locals thought it rather weird to go thru all the expense of replacing the bridge and barely widen the new one.  Significantly, the new span has no truss work above the roadway so they did eliminate the height restriction. Several other recent bridges in the area have 30 foot width.

The new span has massive concrete railings, some other recent bridges had aluminum guardrails and some were scavenged for the scrap value. The concrete ones should be secure.

I did ask about the narrow roadway and the expense of making the bridge wider was not the key factor, rather, it was the immense quantity of fill needed for the approaches that was the killer.

And a reminder, if anyone knows of a truss bridge anywhere, identical to the one pictured above, I would really appreciate knowing it's location.  You're looking for the distinctive portals, the diamond pattern railing, 164 foot length, 22 foot width, and sturdy Carnegie steel.

Thanx if you find one!  There are still 3 spans unaccounted for!