MENDOCINO CO., 10/1/24 — Caltrans surprised the Albion community again. At Thursday’s online meeting called to discuss why the Albion River Bridge needs to be replaced rather than restored as some have advocated, the state agency presented a mostly new mountain of facts about why the old bridge has plummeted in safety ratings in recent years and therefore must be replaced. Caltrans representatives presented a PowerPoint with information not seen at its earlier public meetings, with some of those findings also not in the environmental documents now open for comment. There was something else new at Thursday’s meeting—four local residents spoke in favor of a new bridge.
The agency’s intent to replace the historic bridge began in 2007. In a compromise with critics back in 2017, Caltrans promised to work with the community to consider rehabilitating the iconic bridge, built with old-growth timbers and steel. But once lead was found in the soil under Salmon Creek Bridge and that structure fell off Caltrans’ schedule, Albion River Bridge moved up—and in the move, rehabilitation was abandoned in favor of five options for replacement bridges. At the last two public meetings, those options were the focal point of discussion, to the dismay of those who wanted to know why restoring the bridge had disappeared.
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