San Benito County is moving forward on a long-awaited $2.4
million bridge construction at Nash Road with completion scheduled
for October 2005.
San Benito County is moving forward on a long-awaited $2.4 million bridge construction at Nash Road with completion scheduled for October 2005.
It will be built to replace a bridge – washed away during heavy rain storms in 1995 and 1998 – where Nash Road crosses the San Benito River bed and connects with Riverside Road. Since its degradation, the county has installed a low-water crossing, but the county has to take it down each year during the rainy season, according to Arman Nazemi, acting public works director.
The Board of Supervisors this week approved the design for the bridge. The Public Works Department hopes to obtain the needed properties within a month and start accepting bids for the project by mid-October.
Of the $2.4 million – an estimate which has risen by about $400,000 during the past 18 months – the federal government has committed to fund 80 percent of the cost and San Benito County will pick up the remaining $480,000.
Nazemi told the board this week the skyrocketing price tag is largely due to the increased costs of steel and fuel.
The bridge will be 285 feet long with two 12-foot wide lanes. It also will include a raised walkway on one side of the road, Nazemi said.
“This bridge will provide all-year-round access,” he said.
Early last year the Public Works Department had hoped to start construction in the summer of 2003. But the county has had difficulty acquiring the necessary properties, and involvement from U.S. Fish and Game also has slowed the process, officials said.
“It’s been a long time,” Supervisor Ruth Kesler said.
Officials hope to award a construction contract by October of this year. However, actual bridge construction can’t begin until May 2005 because of environmental regulations in the river channel; the official “breeding season” for local habitat starts Oct. 15.
