San Bernardino County is filing an application today with the U.S. Department of Transportation for a grant to rebuild several dozen wooden trestle bridges in California’s Mojave Desert.
The Daily Press in Victorville reported yesterday that the county was applying for a $52 million grant to replace 130 of those bridges. But the Redlands Daily Facts reports today that the grant application will be for just $10 million, to replace 43 bridges.
There are about 130 timber trestle bridges in need of replacement across the county, but public works officials, due to the lack of federal funding available, are focusing on the highway stretch between Daggett and Needles because it is more heavily traversed.
“Our critical reach is to keep open the stretch between Amboy Road and Cadiz Road,” Biggs said. He said the area is rich in agricultural and other business activity, which draws more traffic.
Because the highway is part of the National Historic Register, certain limitations are imposed when it comes to public works projects. All bridge designs or other planned infrastructure projects must first go to the Office of Historic Preservation for approval, Biggs said.
The county should learn as quickly as October as to whether the grant will be awarded. If it is, work on the bridges will begin in 2012.
Jim Conkle of the Route 66 Alliance provided some sage comments to the Daily Press:
“We don’t have in the High Desert a major attraction except Route 66,” said Jim Conkle, co-founder of Route 66 Alliance and board member over the California Route 66 Museum in Victorville. “Route 66 is the most famous road in the world. We don’t say that braggingly; we say that as the truth.” […]
“They don’t meet any of the federal highway standards; they couldn’t construct a bridge like that today because they wouldn’t allow it because of the safety concerns,” Conkle said. “If they don’t replace them, there will be a section of Route 66 in San Bernardino County, in the High Desert, that will basically shut down. It will be fragmented so badly that people won’t travel it.”