Another local icon in jeopardy

Unless you’ve been closely following Sonoma County happenings, you may not be aware that another local, iconic bridge, the 1915, Parker-through-truss, Lambert Bridge, is in jeopardy of being removed from service. Like our Healdsburg Memorial Bridge, until recently, this bridge had a Caltrans reported structural Inventory Rating (a rating used for federal funding purposes) of zero tons. Its Sufficiency Rating is 4.8 compared to our Memorial Bridge’s Rating of 2 on a scale of 0 to 100. In June of 2013, I became aware of this threat and corresponded with our County Supervisor, Mike McGuire.
As I did for our Memorial Bridge, I requested the supporting structural calculations. While those calculations have still not been made available to me, with Supervisor McGuire’s support, the County did provide the Caltrans inspection reports which included a reference to the date of the original Caltrans’ structural calculations. A visit to the bridge with Supervisor McGuire disclosed that the bridge upper truss members and supporting pins are similar in geometry to those for our Memorial Bridge. Curiously, per the Caltrans inspection report provided, the structural calculations were made in 1979, the same year and two months earlier than our Memorial Bridge calculations … and were made by the same Caltrans engineer.
Based upon the above information, I suspected that the same pin location, calculation error made for our Memorial Bridge in 1979 might have been made for the Lambert Bridge.
That suspicion proved to be true. Caltrans re-inspected the Lambert Bridge in early 2014. In March of 2014, their report confirmed that the same pin location, calculation error had been made.  Per the new Caltrans report, correcting that error dramatically increased the Lambert Bridge’s structural Operating Rating from 15.8 tons to 33.7 tons and the Inventory Rating from zero to 20 tons.  Similar to the Caltrans Memorial Bridge re-inspection report in 2008, this new report stated that “New load capacity calculations have determined that the existing posting order (re: the maximum permissible vehicle weight) dated June 26, 1980 is no longer applicable.”
After the City of Healdsburg received the 2008 Memorial Bridge re-inspection report, they applied for Federal P&E (Planning and Engineering) funds and received about $1M for bridge studies in 2009. With those funds, they contracted with consulting engineers to study various options for our bridge. Several options were evaluated and the associated costs were estimated. These options included bridge replacement with and without bridge relocation to different locations as well as bridge rehabilitation. On September 7, 2010, after 5 public meetings and based upon Healdsburg community feedback, our City Council selected rehabilitation as the preferred option.
Our city was aware that rehabilitation was not the option preferred by the FHWA Federal agency or Caltrans. Undeterred, our city rose to that challenge, met with Caltrans and the FHWA on several occasions and ultimately secured Federal funding for our bridge’s rehabilitation now in progress.
In February of 2013, Sonoma County also obtained Federal Funding of $1.07 million for the Lambert Bridge P&E.  As I learned at a recent Oct. 6 community meeting convened by Supervisor McGuire, County studies to date have addressed neither the cost for bridge rehabilitation nor the associated future maintenance costs. When I researched the funded project status on the Caltrans website, it’s clear that the present project scope is limited to a replacement bridge with the existing bridge being maintained as a pedestrian/bicycle bridge. About $140,000 of the $1.07M has been spent to date.
At the Oct. 6 meeting, Supervisor McGuire requested that the Sonoma County Department of Transportation and Public Works determine the costs for rehabilitation and maintenance. As with our Memorial Bridge, it’s very possible that rehabilitation will be much less costly than a replacement bridge. It’s important that these relative costs be determined and presented to the public. At the Oct. 6 meeting, both the Caltrans representative in attendance and the County Public Works staff expressed concern that rehabilitation would not be approved for Federal Funding.
If this county attitude is maintained, it may well be self-fulfilling. Sonoma County residents are urged to inform their county officials about their preference for our Lambert Bridge.
Now is the time to let your views be known.
Mel Amato is a Healdsburg resident.