PROJECT OVERVIEW

The Santa Fe Avenue Bridge crosses over the Tuolumne River connecting the nearby communities of Empire and Hughson in central Stanislaus County. Originally built in 1947, the bridge is major north/south arterial road approximately one mile south of State Route 132 serving roughly 10,000 vehicles per day with ten percent of those vehicles being trucks. After a recent assessment, the existing bridge was determined to be seismically deficient. A full replacement of the bridge is now required in order to provide a safer crossing over the river.

The existing bridge has only two-lanes and is narrow with a width of only 24 feet curb-to-curb and no shoulder on either side. The project consists of replacing the existing eight-span reinforced concrete T-girder structure with a new three-span structure cast-in-place, pre-stressed concrete box girder bridge with an overall length of 520 feet. In order to minimize impacts to the public, two through traffic lanes will be maintained during construction.

Once constructed, the new bridge will have a hunched superstructure to match the aesthetics of the existing structure and include the following improvements:

• Two 12 foot wide through traffic lanes in each direction
• A twelve foot wide center median lane to accommodate safe turning movements to/from existing driveways at both ends of the bridge
• Eight foot wide shoulders

CONSTRUCTION STAGES

PROJECT NEWS

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Work accomplished in 2018:

• Draining systems installed
• Superstructure soffit forms installed across the Tuolumne River
• Soil removal
• Pier 3 drilling and installation
• Pile testing
• Rebar replacement
• Concrete placement for bridge soffit and girders
• Formwork for bridge deck

Work accomplished in 2019:

• Concrete pour for Stage 2 Pier 2 CIDH and Column
• Concrete pour for Stage 2 Pier 3 CIDH and Column
• Completed erection of Stage 2 Falsework
• PG&E casing and full relocation of gas line
• Completed ground improvement work
• Completed approach slabs
• Bird mitigation work
• Stage 1 barrier rail & paving work
• Traffic switched to Stage 1 span
• Completed Stage 1 falsework removal
• Santa Fe full road closure began April 29, 2019 for all work for Stage 1 and Stage 2 traffic switch

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