CA 283 and the Rio Dell Bridge

[Max Rockatansky]

In the below California Highway article we examine the history of CA 283 and the Rio Dell Bridge.  The Rio Dell Bridge was constructed during 1941 over the Eel River and was built in conjunction with the nearby Robinson Ferry Bridge.  The Rio Dell Bridge is the second alignment of US 101 between the communities of Rio Dell and Scotia.  The Rio Dell Bridge and Robinson Ferry Bridge replaced two spans which were built during 1914.  The Rio Dell Bridge was nearly wiped out during the 1964 Christmas floods on the Eel River but was rebuilt during 1965 (the cover photo is a temporary foot bridge put in following the floods on the northern approach).  The Rio Dell Bridge was spun off from US 101 into the newly created CA 283 during 1970 whereas the Robinson Ferry Bridge still part of the former.  CA 283 is often cited to be the shortest California State Highway but it is actually second shortest at 0.356 miles.  Only CA 225 at 0.081 miles is shorter than CA 283.

https://www.gribblenation.org/2020/07/california-state-route-283-former-us.html

[nexus73]

That flood also wiped out the US 101 bridge by Klamath.  You can see the south end of where the original bridge was and it has the two bears on the end just like the newer one which replaced it. 

Rick

[Max Rockatansky]

That flood also wiped out the US 101 bridge by Klamath.  You can see the south end of where the original bridge was and it has the two bears on the end just like the newer one which replaced it. 

Rick

The amount of damage in those articles to pretty much the entire US 101 corridor north of Santa Rosa is of an epic scale.  It looks as though only the strongest bridges really are what fared best.  Trying to get through on Blue Slide Road even temporarily sounds like a nightmare. 

[nexus73]

That storm was a real doozy.  It came just two years after the Columbus Day storm, which was one of the planet's largest and strongest in recorded history.  The Pacific Coast from NorCal to Vancouver BC can be anything but pacific when the weather turns bad. 

On the good side is that when things are nice and temperate, it would be hard to find a better place to live in terms of climate.

Rick

[sparker]

With my parents, I took my first trip up US 101 as far as Crescent City back in the summer of 1963, traveling, of course, over many of the bridges and highway segments destroyed or damaged a year and a half later by the 1964 flooding.  A thorough account of the damage -- and the heroic efforts to reestablish the regional connections was published in the first couple bi-monthly 1965 issues of CH&PW (incidentally the last year to retain the traditional informative/engineering format).  Of note was the extensive deployment of military-style temporary steel bridges until permanent replacements could be constructed.  But the singular saving grace of the incident was that most of the damage was concentrated in the river bottoms (the Eel in particular); much of the then-new US 101 freeway up the hill from the redwood grove state parks was spared save for a few mudslides and partial washouts.  Rebuilding was largely completed by the spring of 1967 -- a feat that was in itself surprising considering the devastation from the parks north all the way to the mouth of the Eel.  But while the approaches were washed away, the Ferndale bridge (current CA 211) remained intact; those approach berms were rebuilt virtually immediately after the waters subsided, which enabled Blue Slide Road to become the temporary main N-S artery for several weeks. 

Do check out the CH&PW articles -- some of the photographs of the devastation are jaw-dropping! 

[Max Rockatansky]

With my parents, I took my first trip up US 101 as far as Crescent City back in the summer of 1963, traveling, of course, over many of the bridges and highway segments destroyed or damaged a year and a half later by the 1964 flooding.  A thorough account of the damage -- and the heroic efforts to reestablish the regional connections was published in the first couple bi-monthly 1965 issues of CH&PW (incidentally the last year to retain the traditional informative/engineering format).  Of note was the extensive deployment of military-style temporary steel bridges until permanent replacements could be constructed.  But the singular saving grace of the incident was that most of the damage was concentrated in the river bottoms (the Eel in particular); much of the then-new US 101 freeway up the hill from the redwood grove state parks was spared save for a few mudslides and partial washouts.  Rebuilding was largely completed by the spring of 1967 -- a feat that was in itself surprising considering the devastation from the parks north all the way to the mouth of the Eel.  But while the approaches were washed away, the Ferndale bridge (current CA 211) remained intact; those approach berms were rebuilt virtually immediately after the waters subsided, which enabled Blue Slide Road to become the temporary main N-S artery for several weeks. 

Do check out the CH&PW articles -- some of the photographs of the devastation are jaw-dropping!

Speaking of those military bridges aren't the one-lane steel structures around the Ferugsson Slide on CA 140 leftovers from the floods on US 101 on the Eel River?

[sparker]

With my parents, I took my first trip up US 101 as far as Crescent City back in the summer of 1963, traveling, of course, over many of the bridges and highway segments destroyed or damaged a year and a half later by the 1964 flooding.  A thorough account of the damage -- and the heroic efforts to reestablish the regional connections was published in the first couple bi-monthly 1965 issues of CH&PW (incidentally the last year to retain the traditional informative/engineering format).  Of note was the extensive deployment of military-style temporary steel bridges until permanent replacements could be constructed.  But the singular saving grace of the incident was that most of the damage was concentrated in the river bottoms (the Eel in particular); much of the then-new US 101 freeway up the hill from the redwood grove state parks was spared save for a few mudslides and partial washouts.  Rebuilding was largely completed by the spring of 1967 -- a feat that was in itself surprising considering the devastation from the parks north all the way to the mouth of the Eel.  But while the approaches were washed away, the Ferndale bridge (current CA 211) remained intact; those approach berms were rebuilt virtually immediately after the waters subsided, which enabled Blue Slide Road to become the temporary main N-S artery for several weeks. 

Do check out the CH&PW articles -- some of the photographs of the devastation are jaw-dropping!

Speaking of those military bridges aren't the one-lane steel structures around the Ferugsson Slide on CA 140 leftovers from the floods on US 101 on the Eel River?

While the CA 140 "temporary" bridges are virtually identical to the type used back in '64-'65 during the regional flooding, it's unlikely they are the exact same units.  Many of those structures were deployed for up to 2 1/2-3 years, so by the time they were supplanted by permanent structures and returned to some agency's corporate yard they were likely rustbuckets.  Also, it's just as unlikely that 55-year-old steel structures used back then in D1 would show up these days down in D10.  But the design and fitness for the job at hand hasn't changed over that period of time; the interim trusses are as useful now as they were decades ago.