Remodeled 13th Street bridge opens
The north lanes of the 13th Street bridge were fully opened to traffic this week, completing a long anticipated improvement for Paso Robles transportation. The south side of the bridge was finished in June, 2013.
The new span over Highway 101 has widened sidewalks, decorative brick work, fencing and street lights.
“The bridge is all complete except for the bike lane striping,” said Ditas Esperanza, capital projects engineer for the city of Paso Robles.
“The area where the bike lanes are proposed is the area where the old sidewalk used to sit on,” she said. “When the sidewalks were removed, the surface underneath was found to be rough and quite ugly. The solution to make it smooth is to lay an approximate 3/8-inch layer of epoxy concrete coating. This material is temperature sensitive and must be placed when the ambient temperature is 70 degrees Fahrenheit.
“So, once the weather is warmer, the epoxy will be placed and then the bridge will be striped for bike lanes as originally planned,” she said.
The remodel of the 13th Street Bridge is only a part of a bigger transportation project. The overall project is to:
- Install two left turn lanes at Hwy 46 coming from Bakersfield
- Widen the southbound ramp at Hwy 101 to receive the 2 left turn lanes
- Install a new southbound ramp at Hwy 101 at 17th Street
- Relocate the old southbound off ramp at Hwy 101 that was at 16th to 17th
- Widen 13th Street Bridge and widen curb ramps at Riverside to allow truck traffic
The rest of the project is underway and its completion date is March or April 2014, according to a city report.
An aerial view of the Paso Robles 13th Street Bridge on July 11, 2013.
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