MENDOCINO Co., 8/9/24 — Caltrans has a snazzy new Albion River Bridge website sporting simulations of what three replacement bridges could look like. A viewer can take a virtual drive on new concrete arched or non-arched bridges and even get a hawk’s eye view of what they would look like from above. But the activist group the Albion Bridge Stewards will have a key question for the state agency at a Aug. 13 public meeting about the rollout: “When did Caltrans stop considering rehabilitation or replacement and go straight to replacing the bridge?” asks the Stewards’ Jim Heid.

Caltrans has spent a decade telling the Albion community that its two tall Highway 1 bridges would need to be replaced. Then, after battling community resistance from 2010-2017, Caltrans promised to consider rehabilitation on equal footing with a replacement for the Albion River Bridge. All documents said, “replace or rehabilitate.”