The Bureau of Reclamation and California Department of Parks and Recreation will temporarily close for one year, the Ponderosa Way bridge over the North Fork American River between Weimar and Foresthill from August 1, 2022, until July 1, 2023. It’s located 12 miles northeast of Auburn in Auburn State Recreation Area.
The bridge foundation was partially undercut during winter storms in 2016 and 2017, and discovered during safety inspections. Because of this undercut the bridge was closed to vehicular traffic in May of 2020. The single-lane, truss-type bridge was built in 1936 by the Civilian Conservation Corps using tools then available to crews and will be replaced with an updated design using modern construction techniques.
Ponderosa Road will also be closed from August 1, 2022, until July 1, 2023. There are alternative routes across the canyon via Yankee Jims Road or Iowa Hill Road to the east and Foresthill Road from Interstate 80 to the west. Additional access to the river downstream is seasonally open at Upper Clementine Lake Road.
The replacement project is managed by the Federal Highway Administration and funded with a grant under the Federal Lands Transportation Program.
The land surrounding Ponderosa Bridge is owned by Reclamation and some land along Ponderosa Way is managed under agreements with the California Department of Parks and Recreation and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.
For more information about the project, please contact the Federal Highway Administration at https://highways.dot.gov/federal-lands/projects/ca/ponderosa.
Original source can be found here.
