Community Corner
How Safe Are Scotts Valley's Bridges?
More than 42 percent of bridges in Santa Cruz County are structurally deficient or functionally obsolete, experts say.
One in nine California bridges are structurally deficient, including 11 percent of those in Santa Cruz County, according to a national report card on American infrastructure.
Commuters and travelers are thinking more about the possible risks of crossing of America's aging bridges following the collapse of the I-5 bridge in Washington State last week.
In California, 4,178 out of 24,812 total bridges were deemed functionally obsolete according to the 2013 Report Card for America's Infrastructure, including 26 in Santa Cruz County. "Functionally obsolete" indicates the bridge's configuration fails to meet current demands for lane width, shoulder width or "doesn’t have enough vertical clearance for large trucks to pass under, causing repeat hits and damage to the bridge," according to transportation officials.
Another 73 of Santa Cruz County's bridges were classified as structurally deficient, meaning a certain component needs repair or replacement. A bridge deemed structurally deficient is not necessarily in danger of collapse, according to transportation officials. There are 2,978 structurally deficient bridges in the state.
A May 2 database released by Caltrans lists all the bridges in the county and notes which ones have structural deficiencies or are considered obsolete.
Structurally deficient bridges near Scotts Valley:
- Mount Hermon Road and East Zayante Road bridges over Zayante Creek
- Glen Canyon Road bridge over Branciforte Creek
- Graham Hill Road bridge over Bean Creek
- Conference Drive bridge over East Zayante Road
- Lompico Road and Carol Drive bridges over Lompico Creek
- East Zayante Road and Quail Hollow bridges ver Zayante Creek
"If a bridge isn't safe to drive on, it'll be closed to traffic," Barrineau explained in this Huffington Post story. "If a bridge is rated as deficient, it just means that it has to be inspected on a much more regular basis due to risks coming from structural damage or regular wear and tear. Functionally obsolete bridges just aren't built to current standards."
It's important to note that the I-5 bridget that collapsed in Washington State was not structurally deficient. Rather, the bridge was functionally obsolete. Built in 1955, it was designed to be "fracture critical" meaning the entire structure can fail in the event of serious impact. There are about 18,000 similarly-designed spans in the U.S., including the Minneapolis I-35W bridge that spontaneously crumbled in 2007.
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