Nestled on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada's is the small town of Big Pine, about 30 minutes south of Bishop. The private bridge was needed in order to sub-divide some property. The bridge needed to be able to support concrete trucks, fire trucks, and construction vehicles. And, of course, the County needed to approve the bridge as well.
This site is absolutely breathtaking. Right at the foot of a mountain with a stream that has some excellent fishing. Clean air, clean water, and a great small town feel.
The bridge and abutments were pretty much an off the shelf design with all materials already in-stock. The only thing we needed to build were the steel curbs then we painted the bridge. All engineering was also pretty much copy/paste job. The County approved our plans without delay.
Crane availability was not good...or, at least, not cost effective. Paragon's installation prices are just about the same no matter where in the country the job is at. Paragon has gotten pretty good at making things work. The closest crane was at least a 4 hour car ride each way which means 5 1/2 hours in a slow crane. Using a crane was just not going to happen. The other common option is to use a large excavator. Something in the 80,000 lb class range would work well. Unfortunately, there we no 80,000 lb excavators available. No 70,000 lb excavators, no 60,000 lb excavators... We were able to find a 38,000 lb excavator and a few other small pieces of equipment. So, with that, and our well experience work crew and their truck/trailer we were able to make things work...on time and on budget.
This bridge is 89' 6' long X 10 1/2' wide X 2 1/2' tall, all steel construction, with steel curbs. It is rated for HS20 (72,000 lb) vehicular traffic. The abutments are pre-cast concrete blocks which came out of Reno, NV.
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