Jack Peters Creek Bridge doesn’t have a grand reopening day planned so far like Noyo or even the Pudding Creek Bridge. But the traffic light that has been tying up traffic for two years should be removed by Wednesday, said Caltrans spokesman Manny Machado and a guy I talked to on the scene Monday morning.
And we saved the historic Great Depression Bridge marker so that State Parks can use in a museum display at Russian Gulch if and when that happens!
The two-year deck replacement was needed to make the bridge wide enough for modern cars. Shoulders have gone from 1 foot wide to six feet wide. The bridge went from the skinniest tall bridge on the Coast at 30 feet wide to 47 feet wide, the most ample deck south of Noyo River Bridge in the county.
We saw a spectacular view and counted 10 bird species on one walk across the new sidewalk. But this is a sidwalk to nowhere . One big problem is the cliff is so narrow, there is literally no place to build anything as the exit to Mendocion already is just inches from the cliff and bluff. (see photos)
Caltrans has completed two beautiful bridges now, one just north of Fort Bragg proper and one just north of Mendocino, wider, more walkable. The big question now, is when will they replace the deck or the bridge at Hare Creek? That bridge was a priority for deck replacement for many years but fell off the Caltrans list, despite widening cracks in the railing and a deck deemed safe but not looking good. We plan a story on this in January.
The only two bridges now slated for replacement are Albion River Bridge and Salmon Creek Bridge. The community of Albion has made a tragic mistake in not putting a plan B in their resistance to the replacement, in our view. They have also been poorly served by their elected representatives at all levels. Caltrans would still compromise if the community would ask for needed sidewalks beyond the bridge, more sea grass restoration and permanent public access to the beaches under both bridges. But the answer to all effort to do something better so far has been simply NO to the bridge replacements, which is a position many feel strongly about, but should have been accompanied by a plan B …For example….if you do replace the bridges against our will ( I dont know why there is opposition to replacing Salmon Creek Bridge) Caltrans should be made to do something with the wood bridge, like commission an art project and preserve it. They are obligated to rdue to Albion River Bridges’s historic status. Caltrans presented much more attractive bridges in 2017 but got only no and are now pushing a bridge through that isn’t attractive really. But the community is asking for nothing, the elected reps have said nothing and so they will likely lose their bridge and get the bare minimum in return We want to do a bigger article on this and will in February.
But there might be something else even more cool that could come out of this.
What if the town of Mendocino suddenly had the ownership or use of a flat area the size of a football field, with great drainage and capable of holding anything from heavy equipment to a big concert?
It does! Or will! If visionary leaders of the past, like William Heeser, were around, they would no doubt seize this opportunity to add to the future pizzazz and power of his beloved Mendocino. But we have something better today, the Mendocino Land Trust.
We have been looking into what the feasibility is of the community aquiring of the two flat spaces developed for staging needed for Jack Peters Bridge. We are in over our heads, but the Land Trust would know what to do, if they had time.
A massive number of trees were removed and an area bigger than a football field on the south end can be driven up to now with a Caltrans constructed road. That entire area could literally hold anything. It was flattened and chip sealed and heavy equipment used it regularly . Great potential resource. There is also an Inn adjacent that could utilize it I would think. We haven’t talked to the Land Trust yet, but I started one day taking the dogs out on Seaside Beach (owned by Land Trust and one of only two off leash beaches), then had tours of the Smith Ranch just south of Ten Mile River. The Land Trust has all the public trails there (strictly no dogs) there. Then we went to a Land Trust-sponsored walk for king tides.
Machado had this to say about the staging area and further sidewalks.
“The staging area is within the state right-of-way and there is no plan to lease that area. Sidewalks have been placed in accordance to the project plans. There are no future projects at this time for additional sidewalks within the project limits. Areas outside of State right-of-way would fall to Mendocino County for project implementation.”
So nothing shaking now but that could change?
I am appalled at how many places we have due to the Land Trust which started out to save Heider Field! The Land Trust is doing so many things now they would probably need some community group to push our idea of turning that flat ground into a amazing resource for the town of Mendocino.
Why couldn’t this new paved building lot couldn’t become the home for a nature center, a concert venue and a museum?. We image a great art hangar made with the part of the Albion River Bridge, if that bridge is torn down as planned. Or greenhouses where the community could grow native plants for Caltrans and the timber companies, with a study center for local schools. The staging area to the north was never fully developed or utilized and it wouldn’t easy to access for the town, more for Surfwood.
And we have given the Jack Peters bridge marker a home!
We were self-appointed, with the approval of Caltrans to find a home for the historic bridge marker that motorists passed for 86 years. The Kelley House and the Mendocino County Museum said no. State Parks wants it for an exhibit on the Great Depression in the pm
The new bridge has much wider lanes, a wide protected sidewalk on the west side. This replaces no sidewalks or shoulders, only a 12 inch wide tiptoe area a ledge of the old railings. In the past, crossing the bridge on foot or by bicycle was a death-defying journey . One woman and her bike were sent airborne and over the railing simply by the wind of a passing car. The bridge went from one narrow foot wide shoulders and no sidewalk to a protected sidewalk on the west side wide enough for someone to pass myself and the two leashed German Shepherds.
Caltrans will be around through the end of the year and perhaps into January doing landscaping and other work at Jack Peters Creek.
The sidewalk across Jack Peters Creek Bridge provides some of the best ocean viewing and bird watching around in a place literally world famous for both
Jack Peters Creek was a super challenging project for that reason, when it was built using President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal economic stimulus money.
The bridge is only 223 feet long, but the canyon is very deep and it’s hard for crews to get any “elbow room” to work. And there is not an inch to give to the West. You can see how the bridge and road had to be jerked east for the wider bridge to work without putting a bend in the road. You can see how the bridge and road had to be jerked east for the wider bridge to work without putting a bend in the road.
When Caltrans looked at replacing it, the cost of working in the steep canyon would have been super high, with no way to build the new bridge next to the old one. A steel girder bridge might have been used, but steel is considered an inferior material to concrete in the marine environment. A new bridge would also have meant a costly diversion through Surfwood subdivison to the east for at least a year. Fortunately, the old bridge itself was literally as solid as a rock. The work crews got a pleasant surprise when they took the deck off and saw the high quality rebar in the old bridge and the quality of the cement as well. Those same materials don’t exist in construction today. Although rebar technolgy has advanced, this rebar was so heavy and had been sealed so well in the concrete tomb, that there were no worries about using something made by men who are likely all long dead, Its good for another year. There were no bad injuries during the job and no deaths even in one bad traffic crash two months ago when someone plowed into them back of a line of traffic stopped at the light.
Under the bridge, nothing has changed. There is a falsework staircase of wood there now, that I imagine will be removed. Its slide on your butt territory to get to Jack Peters Creek and NOT advised. The same old path on the soutwest corner is unchanged. Very little seems to have been done to the superstructure, as algae still grows on the concrete as if it weren’t even power washed.
When Frank went down to the Mendocino Headlands Beach under the Jack Peters Bridge in 2023 and 2024 there were rocks showering down constantly from the cliffs above—where the road veers toward Mendo. They seem to have done something to slow this.
NOTE- THIS IS A DANGEROUS BEACH !! PLEASE DO NOT ATTEMPT TO GO THERE – The tide will strand you.
They built a great bridge back in 1939, with a frosting of a wider deck and new rails. Caltrans estimates it should last another century at least.
It’s lucky that our ancestors did such great work. That rock-solid concrete foundation made this project cost just an original estimate $11 million, whereas a replacement, I was told, would have been more than 4x that much, and might have been virtually impossible without going through Surfwood sub-division due to the steepness of the canyon. Manny Machado of Caltrans said there was no updated estimate available last week.
And who was Jack Peters anyway?. History books show he was a guy who brewed beer and harder brews in Mendo. He lived nearby. People would say, what’s the name of that creek? The answer was the creek by Jack Peters house! Frank did a lot of research to get. the above but the Kelley House seems to have more information, a bit different than what we found.
Get You a Copper Kettle – Kelley House Museum – Mendocino, CA
That got to be the name. He wasn’t anybody super famous, he just lived there and people woud say, its out there, you know, by the old Peters place.
The roadway leading to the bridge has been widened to the east to meet the new bridge
centerline. From approximately 1,000 feet south of the bridge to 200 feet north of the bridge,
the new road will eventually have 12-foot lanes and 6-foot shoulders. Shoulders taper to
match the existing shoulder widths.
The bridge promised to extend the Coastal Trail, but Caltrans says there is no effort by them or anybody else to go beyond the south end of the bridge- its simply not possible- see photos.
However, the project was initially sold as extending the Coastal Trail to the north by 275 feet to Woodstock Drive, ultimately connecting to Coastal Trail segments in Russian Gulch State Park “known as South Headlands Trail.” This is still in the works.
