Caltrans Begins Project to Increase Clearance on Bridges on I-80 in Placer Co.

[andy3175]

http://www.raise80.com/

Caltrans is raising the vertical clearance of 9 overcrossings to 16'6" . Higher vertical clearance will improve access on Interstate 80 through the Sierra for interstate commerce and national security. See details below for each bridge project, including dates and detours.

http://www.auburnjournal.com/article/caltrans-announces-36-million-i-80-overpass-clearance-project

Caltrans announced Thursday a $36 million state-funded project to raise the overhead clearance for nine overpasses along a 30.8-mile stretch of Interstate 80, from the Brace Road crossing in Loomis to the Magra Road crossing east of Colfax. Caltrans has yet to name an official start date for the project, but it has contracted RGW Construction, Inc. out of Livermore for two construction seasons spanning spring 2014 through fall 2015.

Caltrans spokeswoman Rochelle Jenkins said currently the overpasses in question arch between 14 feet, 5 inches and 15 feet, 6 inches above the highway, and construction would broaden this distance to 16 feet, 6 inches for all of them.

She said the state will save money by reusing the existing structures instead of building new bridges in the case of six of these overpasses, including those for Brace Road, Horseshoe Bar, Penryn Road, King Road, Gilardi Road and Magra Road. For the other three, the highway underneath will be dug out to achieve the same effect -- Weimar Cross because a simulation showed the bridge might snap in two if lifted; the Newcastle Union Pacific because the state doesn't own it and can't touch it and Newcastle Road because digging beneath the Union Pacific bridge and not Newcastle Road could create a pool of standing water on the highway.

[jdbx]

The first closure for this project happened last night for the lifting of the Magra Road overcrossing.  I have read that they will be lifting the bridge decks via hydraulic jacks, although I am curious about how they will be supporting the bridge at the new higher level.  Will they be repouring new support columns beneath the lifted deck, or simply extending the existing ones?  I don't think that I have seen a project like this before in Northern California, it seems like a novel way to get higher clearances.

[jrouse]

The first closure for this project happened last night for the lifting of the Magra Road overcrossing.  I have read that they will be lifting the bridge decks via hydraulic jacks, although I am curious about how they will be supporting the bridge at the new higher level.  Will they be repouring new support columns beneath the lifted deck, or simply extending the existing ones?  I don't think that I have seen a project like this before in Northern California, it seems like a novel way to get higher clearances.

I believe they'll be extending the existing supports.  Caltrans did a similar project on State Route 70 north of Oroville some years ago and that's how it was done.  These bridges that are being raised are of the same design as the ones that were raised on SR-70.

[andy3175]

Caltrans is nearing completion on Raise 80:

http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/transportation/back-seat-driver/article70842477.html

After a year of heavy lifting, California highway officials are nearly done with an improbable task on Interstate 80 in Placer County: raising seven freeway overcrossings between Loomis and Weimar, in some cases by more than 2 feet.

The $36 million "Raise 80" project has involved jacking up and repositioning 1,000-plus ton overpasses, many of them a half-century old, to comply with federal 16-foot-6-inch standards so modern supersized trucks and military vehicles can squeeze under them. ...

The I-80 freeway was built between 1957 and 1964 as part of the Federal Highway Act. Crews finished the first portion from Sacramento to Truckee in the late 1950s, in time for the 1960 Winter Olympics at Squaw Valley, so fans wouldn't have to slog single-file up old Highway 40.