Don’t expect a quick fix to Route 66’s dilapidated bridges in the Mojave Desert — or anyplace else — if Congress and the president enact the Route 66 centennial bill this year.
The Route 66 Centennial Commission Act, passed unanimously by voice vote earlier this week, contains a provision that requests the Secretary of Transportation to meet with the governors of Route 66;s states and produce a plan for preserving the historic highway.
However, a report from McClatchy Newspapers’ bureau in Washington states even if the bill becomes law this year, such funding for Route 66’s preservation wouldn’t be available right away.
[T]hat plan wouldn’t be due to the House’s transportation and infrastructure committee until three years from the legislation’s passage, meaning relief for affected areas could still be several years away.
The affected areas include 126 timber bridges on Route 66 in San Bernardino County, California, in the Mojave Desert. Not only were dozens of those bridges damaged or destroyed by flash flooding in recent years, the 80-year-old bridges have reached the end of their useful lives.
McClatchy Newspapers assembled these facts about the bridges:
- Because repairing or replacing the bridges is such a major undertaking, San Bernardino County has organized them into priority groups of 10. It hopes to have them all finished within a decade.
- The county placed weight restrictions on about 60 bridges to keep them open.
- The state noted the bridges needed maintenance as far back as 1949.
- The county can’t simply close Route 66 because it’s a relief road if an accident closes nearby Interstate 40.
One county official explained the situation with the desert’s timber bridges:
“These bridges are over 80 years old and they’re made of wood so they’re past their service life. It is critical … We kind of use the expression some of them are being held together by termites holding hands.”
The Route 66 Centennial Commission Act awaits action from the U.S. Senate’s Environment and Public Works Committee.
A related bill, the Route 66 National Historic Trail Designation Act, also was unanimously passed by the House several weeks ago and awaits Senate action.
Both bills are supported by the Route 66 Road Ahead Partnership.
(Image of a newly washed-out bridge on National Old Trails Highway, aka Route 66, by California Highway Patrol via Facebook)
It would be naive to believe that a “quick fix” exists for anything in this world! Don’t forget that there are 435 representatives in Congress, and I guarantee that in every single one of their districts one or more bridges need to be repaired or replaced. Fortunately, 66 runs right through the district of the son of former Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, which I believe in name recognition alone helped move it forward to the Senate.
In the meantime, I feel that we can all collectively work towards shoring up grant programs, or possibly develop new ones, in partnership with well off individuals and businesses along the route and beyond. There simply has to be other ways than just Federal Government funding to improve and preserve the 66 experience!
Perhaps it is time to let reality take over from romance. Whether made of rope, stone, wood, iron, steel or concrete (I have yet to hear of plastic bridges), they all have limited practical lifespans. And if a bridge or part of one is replaced with modern materials, how authentic does it remain?
That section from Kelbaker road to Essex has been closed for several years now. It’s frustrating. The state of California has been working slowly on it with limited funding. Maybe a shot of additional federal funds will help. A few years back I talked to someone at CalTrans and they told me the same thing. When the flash floods occurred they went out to repair the bridges and determined that all the wood bridges were unsafe and replacement not repair was needed.
The County of San Bernardino, Cal Trans and others have been wasting time and inordinate sums of money designing and FINALLY replacing/building two of the damaged bridges just east of Kelbaker Road. They, plus some Route 66 historic nuts insisted that the outdated and antiquated wooden bridges be duplicated for these replacements, using designs dreamed up by some “80th floor New York” city slicker that doesn’t know the first thing about the area. All this at incredible expense and the finished wood based product looks nothing like the original bridges and will eventually suffer the same fate as the old bridges. Added to this is the sorry fact that no one can tell that these new bridges are even supposed to simulate the old wooden bridges unless one gets out of their car, walks under the bridge and gawks: “wow its a wooden bridge”. Just like the old piece of s*** wooden bridges.
Modern, structurally sound concrete bridges could be built at a small fraction of the cost and sustain the traffic for at least a century – and you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference from the wood structures unless you got out of your car and walked under the bridge and see that it’s concrete. The top side of the bridges look exactly the same. There are numerous concrete bridges along the same stretch of Route 66 already. Roomer has it that the railway even offered to build some of the new concrete bridges on its own dime, but they were turned down by this pack of nit wits.
If nothing else, take out the bridges and put in some “woop-d-doos”! How about just driving around the broken bridges – “10 mile an hour zone” for four 300 foot sections of road.
The important thing is to get the highway open – it is the drive or the ride that is the attraction, not getting out, walking down and sitting under a bridge to marvel at the wooden timbers. In the meantime people are being severely inconvenienced in driving through this area of desert, are being denied the opportunity to experience the open “Mother Road”, and, the few businesses along the way are suffering immeasurably or have already closed down as a result.
Truly, this is insanity. Fix the ROAD!
A resident and enthusiast.