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The Hirschdale bridges that cross the Truckee River and railroad will soon be removed by Nevada County because of the concrete spans’ age and safety issues. Tahoe Pyramid Bikeway advocates, who once counted on the structures to link the trail from Hirschdale to Verdi, are now hoping pedestrian bridges can be constructed to replace the old concrete structures. |
CommentsHirschdale Bridge Demolition Creates Hurdle for Tahoe-Pyramid Bikeway
By David BunkerPublished: June 22, 2010
Tahoe-Pyramid Bikeway planners were plowing ahead on a bike route that runs 116 miles down the banks of the Truckee River from Tahoe City to Pyramid Lake when they realized that one of their critical crossings of the Truckee River was about to disappear.
Hirschdale’s two aging concrete bridges are holdovers from the old Highway 40 era, a time when Interstate 80 was a figment of the imagination and road crews dumped concrete-corroding salt liberally on winter roads. The two spans, each approximately 80 years old, were an integral part of the Tahoe-Pyramid Bikeway route, but had also long been high on Nevada County’s list of things to tear down for two important reasons.
“The bridges are a liability for the county, both from a public safety standpoint and from an environmental standpoint,” said Ted Owens, Nevada County Supervisor for District 5.
At first, the county — armed with state and federal funding — planned to replace the bridges, even though the road that passes over the Truckee River and the Union Pacific railroad tracks soon peters out in a patch of land sandwiched between the Truckee River and Interstate 80. The one-lane bridges are in use but are typically crossed only occasionally, usually by Truckee River anglers.
So Owens and others soon came up with an alternate, tax-saving plan. Replacing the bridges would cost over $7 million, but demolishing the bridges and allowing access through Hinton Road, which accesses the property from the north by passing under Interstate 80, would cost about half as much.
Nevada County settled on this plan, knowing that due to state and federal funding restrictions the county would have had to replace the old, one-lane bridges with state-of-the-art and expensive new spans. The county plans to take the bridges down by 2013, Owens said.
“I can’t support $3 or $4 million to build freeway-quality bridges when freeway-quality bridges are not needed,” he said.
The planned demolition of the two structures, however, puts another hurdle in front of the Tahoe-Pyramid Bikeway group, which already has its hands full dealing with two states, numerous counties, and countless agencies.
The whole purpose is for the trail to follow the Truckee River, which disqualifies the bike path from following the alternative path up Hinton Road, said Tahoe-Pyramid Bikeway volunteer and Truckee resident Chris Askin.
A bike route up Hinton Road would snake cyclists up a moderate hill, under Interstate 80, through Teichert Aggregates Boca Quarry, and out near Boca Reservoir. From there cyclists could head west, quickly tying into the trail system that connects Old Greenwood to town, or possibly cut back to the Truckee River across a broad, open sage-filled valley that is often referred to as Airport Flats.
But for the Tahoe-Pyramid Bikeway organizers, leaving the river is a deal breaker.
“The problem is going away from the river,” said Askin. “If you are just going to Pyramid Lake it’s much shorter to go over the hills near Bordertown north of Reno, but the whole vision is to follow the river.”
The Tahoe-Pyramid Bikeway group is now lobbying the county to add plans for a pedestrian bridge at Hirschdale into the bridge demolition project. Askin said the bikeway group will work with the county to pursue state funding to build the bridge.
“It is a great vision,” Askin said. “It will be an incredible trail. I think it will be known throughout the West as a must-do, as an incredible ride.”
Owens, who is dealing with tough choices in a county whose budget has been hit hard by the economic downturn, said his first priority is saving taxpayer money.
“[Not rebuilding the bridges] will save at least $3 million. That is a big savings to the taxpayer, and the maintenance of a paved road is much less expensive than the maintenance of two bridges,” he said.
Still, Owens said he supports the vision of building a bike trail from Tahoe City to Pyramid Lake.
“It is a great endeavor, and I support it,” said Owens. “It is a wonderful amenity.”
The question will be whether state bikeway money can be found to fund a pedestrian bridge, and whether the plans can navigate the complexities of working with the county, state, railroad, and Caltrans.
Owens said that the pedestrian bridge will have to be its own stand-alone project, completely separate from the bridge demolition plans.
Dan Warren, general manager of the Glenshire Devonshire Homeowners Association, said he supports the county’s stance on demolishing and not rebuilding the bridges.
“To build two big bridges like that just for bikes … I’m an avid cyclist, but I am also a taxpayer,” said Warren. “Between the tax problems and the traffic issues [of Boca Quarry trucks possibly using the new bridges], I think there are just better options.”
Warren said routing the bikeway up Hinton Road “is not a bad idea,” but the pedestrian bridge “needs to be kept as a viable option.”
“I would not take the [pedestrian bridge] off the drawing board,” said Warren.
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