Officials Gathered to Celebrate the Completion of the Pudding Creek Bridge Project
Press release from Caltrans:
Pudding Creek Bridge (Looking north on Route 1)
Caltrans joined state and local officials on Thursday to celebrate the completion of the Pudding Creek Bridge project, which will improve accessibility and safety for commuters, pedestrians and bikers. The $8.5 million Mendocino County project included $1.3 million from Senate Bill (SB) 1, the Road Repair and Accountability Act of 2017.
- The bridge project design features steel salmon artwork welded onto both bridge railings
- The bridge project design features steel salmon artwork welded onto both bridge railings
Built in 1959, the 340-foot-long bridge was expanded to accommodate two 12-foot-wide lanes; two 8-foot-wide shoulders for bicyclists; two 6-foot pedestrian walkways; and upgraded bridge railings. The bridge project design features steel salmon artwork welded onto both bridge railings above Pudding Creek.
“The completion of this project provides improved bridge safety for motorists, cyclists and pedestrians,” said Caltrans District 1 Director Matt Brady. “The Pudding Creek Bridge links Fort Bragg north along the scenic Mendocino Coast and this rehabilitation project will ensure the structural integrity of the bridge for years to come.”
(Left to Right) 2nd District Assemblymember Jim Wood and Caltrans District 1 Corridor Manager Jaime Matteoli at the Pudding Creek Bridge
“The bridge upgrade is a much-needed improvement for the community and will increase the safety of our residents and visitors to the area,” said Fort Bragg Public Works Director John Smith. “We greatly appreciate Caltrans allowing us to place our utilities on the bridge, which will increase the resiliency of our public utilities.”
Officials said they appreciated the Fort Bragg community and motorists for their patience during the four nighttime road closures and controlled traffic, allowing for increased worker safety and reduced project duration.
SB 1 provides $5 billion in transportation funding annually that is shared about equally between state and local agencies. Road projects progress through construction phases more quickly based on the availability of SB 1 funds, including projects that are partially funded by SB 1.
Ribbon Cutting Ceremony at the Pudding Creek Bridge, Mendocino County
MCM Construction, Inc. was the contractor for the project. For more information, visit https://dot.ca.gov/caltrans-
near-me/district-1/d1- projects/puddingcreekbridge.
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What a waste of money!
A bridge with Salmon artwork, over a stream that CDF destroyed an annual Salmon run in with a fish harvesting station, and a Dam that prevented the fish from going upstream.
I agree with you about the waste of money, but I’d like to know more about fish harvesting station. Got any details on that?
For years they trapped, and removed both King and Silver salmon at the dam with a fish ladder. They did the same thing on the south fork of the Noyo river. As far as I know the eggs and sperm they collected went everywhere but those 2 rivers when hatched. Some years they didn’t open up the flow at Pudding creek until late in the season. The silver salmon run was huge in both streams, and now are all but gone. The dam was put in for a water source for the mill here in town.
Oh, right, I forgot about the egg taking. They still trap and harass the fish in Pudding creek and south noyo river and south tenmile river, to monitor the populations they say. There is now a alaskan style fish weir on pudding creek—upstream of the pond where most of the public can’t see what they’re up to. Steelhead and salmon get stranded on top of the weir and die daily during what’s left of the salmon run. Nobody is ever out there to check the weir trap except once in the morning and maybe once in the evening. The pudding, noyo, tenmile fish traps also delay adult fish from making their upstream migration, often stranding fish in the lower creek with less desirable spawning habitat until the fisheries workers are able to move them upstream. By then the water has usually dropped below what the fish need to migrate to prime spawning ground. Then in springtime they trap all the smolts in rotary screw traps, drug the young fish, stab them with a scalpel and jam a metal tag into the body. During summer time the creeks are hit with backpack electrofishing teams, resulting in many more dead fish. All this is done by unqualified and inexperienced staff which exacerbates the situation. A bunch of 20 year olds running around drinking beer, smoking weed and playing scientist. Restore the creek all you want, but the unchecked and poorly supervised “population monitoring” is a big part of the problem. CDFW and Lyme redwood company are the entities doing the monitoring these days, I believe. Ride your bike up pudding creek and see for yourself…
https://www.northcoastcohoproject.org/pudding-creek
https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Pudding-Creek-fish-ladder-trap-and-flashboard-dam_fig3_313891004