Caltrans to chip in for Cabrillo Bridge seismic retrofit

The San Diego City Council on January 8 unanimously approved a cooperative agreement between the City and the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) to seismically retrofit and rehabilitate the Laurel Street (Cabrillo) Bridge. Under the agreement, the City's share of the starting project will not exceed $305,000.

The remainder of the construction and engineering costs are to be funded mostly through Federal Highway Bridge Program funds. The City will receive $500,000 of such funds soon. That funding, plus the $305,000, will address a shortfall of around $718,300 that Caltrans added to the budget to complete “Stage 1” work. (The project is separate from the planned detour extension off the bridge.)

Under the agreement, Caltrans will “advertise, award and administer the construction for this project.” Caltrans will provide a resident engineer and a landscape architect.

In an interview, Caltrans spokesman Edward Cartagena said the “final project cost is estimated at $38 million.” Starting this spring, the date of completion is slated for “fall 2014,” Cartagena said.

Traffic disruption along Highway 163, under the bridge, will be minimized by doing the work mostly at night, Cartagena added.

The renovation includes “removal and replacement of unsound concrete and steel reinforcement”; also, “replacement of the existing inspection catwalks and lighting.” Asphalt pavement will be replaced with lighter Portland cement.

Work on the bridge deck cannot exceed three months, and vehicular traffic will be detoured during that period; non-motorized traffic will remain open during the entire project.

According to Wikipedia, Cabrillo Bridge was built for the Panama-California Exposition of 1915 and cost $250,000 ($5,743,421 in today's dollars). Dedicated in April 1914, the bridge was “primarily intended as a pedestrian pathway” to the exposition.