If you have to replace a historic railroad bridge, this is the way to do it.
Foothill Boulevard (aka Route 66) in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., will be widened to six lanes, which will necessitate the removal of the 81-year-old Pacific Electric Railway Bridge near Baker Avenue. But what will replace it seems to be a pretty good substitute, according to the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin:
The new bridge – which is part of the Pacific Electric Trail that crosses Foothill – will feature artwork depicting scenes of California and Illinois, the end points of Route 66. According to Associate Engineer Curt Billings, one end of the bridge will feature art of palm trees and the Pacific Ocean. On the other end, there will be windmills and white oaks, Illinois’ state tree.
Just east of the bridge will be a park featuring the same varieties of grapevines that were first brought to the area from the San Gabriel Mission. A portion of the old bridge, which was torn down in July, will be preserved as a monument at the park and a section of the original Route 66 will also be preserved.
City officials held a groundbreaking ceremony Wednesday to mark the start of the entire project, which is scheduled to be finished by November 2011.
Here’s a Google Street View look of the original railroad bridge.
Kudos to Rancho Cucamonga on this one. It seems like a good plan under the circumstance. As noted in the comments on the Daily Bulletin’s website, it is a shame that this rare piece of old 66 in RC had to be torn down at all. But in light of the necessity of this change (and trust me, it is a necessary evil that this road improvement project goes forward) I think that Rancho Cucamonga’s city government has done a good deed here.
It looks like a graphetti magnet to me. Wonder what that neighborhood is like? Just hoping that if something nice is put in that location, that it will be appreciated by the locals and not trashed.
Jim
Most of Rancho Cucamonga is pretty nice. This particular area is heavily traveled commercial with immediate decent middle-class houses off the main strip. Yes, there will be some graffiti. Yes, it is worth that risk.
This is my back yard Honestly before there were Billboards a old beaten path and non accessible way to access this path. Now I have this re-bar and 50% loss of viability of the red Hill mountain and I am wondering if the retaining wall that I will be looking at will be decorative or just a block wall
will I loose or gain in concern of property values and living environment