Western Railroad Discussion > California's drought

Here's a photo I took today at Lakehead of Shasta Lake. There's a new bridge being built on I-5 in the background. In the second photo you can see part of the old SP mainline before is was relocated onto the bridge in the foreground. The last photo was taken at high water in the late 1990,s from the opposite side of the railroad bridge in the first photos. The water level was a couple of feet from the lower girder on the railway bridge. As I took that photo the spillways on Shasta Dam was being opened to lower the lake level. Kind of scary isn't it?

Robert Morris Photography
http://www.snowcrest.net/photobob/index1.html



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/01/14 23:05 by photobob.

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The low water level sure makes the bridge building easier!!

Old Bob out in Lost Wages

Great contrast Bob. Makes me thirsty just looking at it. Hopefully we get some serious precipitation soon.

Ryan Wilkerson
Fair Oaks, CA

so far an amazing dry year also here in Portland.....our snow pack up on mountain Hood was measured the other
day at 40% of normal. your pictures of Shasta lake are really amazing! Arlen

Is the old Tunnel 6 out of the water yet? According to the data available over on http://cdec.water.ca.gov/misc/resinfo.html , the lake level is just 25 feet higher now than the lowest level reached in October 2008, when Tunnel 6 was fully exposed and the top of the truss bridge and Tunnel 5 were also out of the water:

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,1776334

At one time I was a "semi regular" on Lake Shasta in the summer on a houseboat and I have never seen the lake that low. Photos, yes. But never in reality.

JDE

there is a high pressure ridge pushing everything up to Alaska.... been there a while.asheldrake Wrote:
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> so far an amazing dry year also here in
> Portland.....our snow pack up on mountain Hood was
> measured the other
> day at 40% of normal. your pictures of Shasta
> lake are really amazing! Arlen

Posted from Android

It's awful up on Donner right now... felt like Springtime today and usually you get a New Year's blizzard.
At only 20% of average snowpack right now, I think that it's going to be one of those summers where the water poliice won't let you wash your car in the driveway--dang it!

Only after seeing these photos do you think ( when the water was UP ) if we derail, its going to a long swim up from the bottom if we make it that far.

Is that new bridge going to be a replacement for the present bridge or will it make I-5 eight lanes? Is the present bridge (deck) falling apart and a new bridge is the best way for repairs?

I've always thought that they did some really forward planning back in the 1930's when they designed the piers (towers?) for the railroad bridges at Lakehead, Salt Creek, and O'Brien. They built the bases wide enough so they could double track the railroad at some time in the future and not have to drain the lake to do it.

They probably never dreamed that there would be enough vehicle traffic to need more than four lanes on the highway bridges.

jb

Wow, what an eye opener! A great shot of the 9800's back then though.
JB

jdb Wrote:
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> Is that new bridge going to be a replacement for
> the present bridge or will it make I-5 eight
> lanes? Is the present bridge (deck) falling apart
> and a new bridge is the best way for repairs?

The existing bridge (called the Antlers Bridge) was built in 1941 and has reached the end of its service life. The new bridge wouldn't add any additional lanes. It will have 2 northbound and 3 southbound (third SB lane is a truck climbing lane). Also included in the project is a 0.4 mile realignment adjacent to the bridge to eliminate a high accident rate set of curves.

Your current images look a lot like the views I saw on the news the other night, Of Folsom Lake behind the dam. Eerily similar. Going to be a long dry year I'm afraid.

KC

Our son and his family regularly ski at a place called China Peak which used to be called Sierra Summit, near Fresno. This past week was their first trip of the season and it was all man-made snow and the terrain was so bad that they scratched skis and snow boards and ended up coming home a day early. Their next trip is scheduled for February and they hope we will have some snow by then. This is really really bad. We have had 4 inches of rain when we would usually have 21 by now.
C.

Carol Voss
Bakersfield, CA

The older steel trusses are considered obsolete due to the inherent failures in the design, the bridge folks want 'redundancy' to the structural components and the steel bolt and rivet approach is specifically excluded. The bridge failure in Minnesota a few years ago apparently shook up a few folks up as to the active maintainance required for the existing steel truss design. Reading the various literature and press releases, the green arched trusses under the concrete roadway is being specifically targeted.

The new approaches don't match the old bridge, the new approaches are at different heights and angles. It will be very different.

http://www.dot.ca.gov/dist2/projects/antlers.htm

http://www.earthcam.com/client/caltrans/antlersbridge/index2.php

Here's a hobbyists synopsis of the bridge, note the rating at the bottom. The official rating is very different and includes future use, which is very limited:

http://bridgehunter.com/ca/shasta/60089/

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> Is that new bridge going to be a replacement for
> the present bridge or will it make I-5 eight
> lanes? Is the present bridge (deck) falling apart
> and a new bridge is the best way for repairs?
>



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/02/14 09:40 by TCnR.

Just to be totally accurate, the California Dept of Water Resources reports that Lake Shasta today is at 57% of historical average levels for this date, and is currently at 37% of full capacity. The photo of the water nearly lapping the RR bridge must have been taken in mid-summer following several very wet winters. If water levels that high existed today (early January), the dam managers would be dumping water like crazy in order to provide room for future snow melt to avoid topping the dam in April or May.

Details at http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cdecapp/resapp/resDetailOrig.action?resid=SHA

If the highway bridge is on its last legs, what is the expected life span of the railroad bridge?

Thanks for posting these images. I have twice (1984 and, I believe, 1987) hiked high up on the hill southwest of that bridge to photograph SP 4449 as she crossed the bridge, southbound.

In the third image you posted, what is the roadway (highway?) bridge which seems to be attached to the railway bridge, seen through the girders of the railway bridge?

Just noticed the 1941 topic on the Caltrans Antler Bridge web site shows the RR and the roadway bridge in the distance. Yep separate bridges not connected:

http://www.dot.ca.gov/dist2/projects/antlers/1941/index.html

Seem to remember the original hiway went over that bridge then into the river valley to cross then followed another canyon, then another pass, then down to the Pit river crossing about 20 ft above the river.

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...
>
> In the third image you posted, what is the roadway
> (highway?) bridge which seems to be attached to
> the railway bridge, seen through the girders of
> the railway bridge?

Thanks for the reply. I had forgotten that near Lakehead, California, the ex-SP crosses Shasta Lake twice. The bridge I remembered was the southernmost bridge. The bridge in Bob's post is the northern bridge. I believe Bob's first and second images were recorded while standing on the highway bridge, which is adjacent to the northern bridge.


"Just noticed the 1941 topic on the Caltrans Antler Bridge web site shows the RR and the roadway bridge in the distance. Yep separate bridges not connected:"