Council ready to hear bridge options

The fate of Healdsburg’s beloved Memorial Bridge will be the
main agenda item at next week’s (Sept. 7) regular City Council
meeting.
Consultants who have been studying the 1921 steel truss span for
over a year, while conducting a series of public hearings on the
many options to preserve, rehab or replace the bridge, will present
a series of preferred projects at the Tuesday meeting.
All of the proposals which were previewed at a public meeting
last week propose keeping the old bridge, while some options
include adding a new parallel bridge at the same time.
The Healdsburg Avenue Bridge has been rated as “functionally
obsolete” by Caltrans because it is too narrow to accommodate
modern traffic needs. The bridge also needs significant seismic
upgrades and other structural repairs to extend its useable life
and improving its safety ratings.
Fixing or replacing a bridge is an expensive problem. Cost
estimates for the four consultant’s options range from $17.3
million to $25 million. The bridge work would qualify for 88
percent state and federal funding under the California Highway
Bridge Program. That leaves the city with the challenge to find
from $2 – $3 million in local funds.
The four favored options by the Omni Means consultants were as
follows:
2A — Rehab and retrofit the existing bridge for 2-way vehicular
traffic;
4A — Rehab the old bridge for pedestrian and bicycle traffic
only and build a new 420-foot long, 37-feet wide concrete bridge
just north of the existing bridge and south of the existing
railroad bridge;
5A — Calls for moving the existing bridge north for
pedestrian/bicycle use and building a new bridge on the old
bridge’s existing alignment; and
5B — Similar to 5B, but moving the existing old bridge to the
south, while building a new bridge on the original alignment.
Thirteen options were studied in all. Top ratings were figured
using criteria such as historic preservation, public safety,
environmental impacts, right of way costs, construability, design
standards and costs.
Until the City Council selects a “preferred project” actual
costs and total funding sources can not be determined.
A “best case” scenario presented last week by a grant writing
consultant said enough historic, safety, landmark, bicycle and
trails grants might be available to limit the city’s portion to
just $700,000 for the top proposals.
But even after an eventual City Council vote on a number one
option this month or next, there are still many months of
environmental review and engineering planning to complete.
The earliest construction date now being suggested is very late
2011 or 2012.
At last Thursday’s public session, the Omni-Means consultants’
list of “matrix-weighted” evaluations, calculations and cost
projections were met with all-but unanimous, mostly sentimental
calls to preserve the old bridge.
“I don’t believe we either need or can afford two bridges,” Mel
Amato, a leading proponent to preserve Memorial Bridge, told the
consultants.
Amato also was critical of some of the cost estimates, stating
the option to rehab and retrofit the old bridge with no new bridge
in his opinion should cost only $13.9 million and not $17.3
million.
Warren Watkins said adding a fourth bridge over the river “was
not in character with the small town feel of Healdsburg.”
“Why can’t we just rehab the old bridge and leave everything
else alone,” said Kaye Rodgers. “We already have another entrance
to town over the river.”
“Where are the people who want another bridge,” asked Ted
Robinson.
Amato and others said the Friends of Healdsburg;s Memorial
Bridge had collected 460 signatures to preserve the bridge.
“People’s feelings and emotion about our bridge are what’s
missing in your numbers,” Mary Johnson told the consultants.
When built in 1921, the 198-foot long, 19-foot wide bridge
carried traffic on paved Redwood Highway across the river and
through Healdsburg on its way north.
When a new Highway 101 alignment was built in the 1960s, the
state-controlled highway diverted to county control. Then, in 1981
when the city annexed land south of the bridge they were given
ownership of the bridge, then already 60 years old.
Annual Caltrans engineering studies documented the failing
condition of the bridge and new weight and speed limits were
imposed in 1989.
“The current studies have taken us much farther than we’ve ever
been in the past in known the condition of the bridge and what
possible options we have,” said Public Works Director Mike
Kirn.
The bridge is being granted historic status and will be eligible
for preservation funds. It’s failing structural rating also
qualifies the bridge for the California Highway Bridge Program and
up to 88 percent in Federal Highway Administration funds.
The Omni-Means study and public hearing process cost $2.3
million, mostly paid with a state grant.