Caltrans describes coming eastward shift to work at Jack Peters Creek Bridge Project- 1930s newspapers show how state built bridge that will last another century

(Editors Note-This story is a sidebar to the previous story about the road widening, read that one first on Mendocino Coast.news.)

Caltrans spokesman Manny Machado gave me some news about the bridge project that people should know. 

Machado said travelers should expect something different at Jack Peters starting next week.

“In the next several weeks, traffic will be moved to the east side of the bridge to allow for demolition of the existing railing on the west side and the installation of the new pedestrian railing and barrier. The cost of the project is $15.5 million. Motorists can continue to expect 10-minute delays, 24 hours a day, and are asked to drive with caution in the construction zone.”

There was a bad rear-end accident in the middle of the Jack  Peters Creek Construction site last week.

I wondered if the crash might have come as a result of the two projects going end-to-end. But the crash was on the bridge, and when I got out while we were camping south of the bridge for the paving project, I turned around and saw the light was red for the southbound travelers over Jack Peters, so the two sites were synchronized. 

The Jack Peters Creek bridge widening project is a separate project from the widening project that can’t be found on the Caltrans website. Caltrans has publicized Jack Peters to the max. It surprises nobody now. When it started, I complained about all the land they took over and the trees they cut down. 

All of that land is now being used for staging and equipment parking that would not have been possible to park elsewhere due to the somewhat terrifyingly unstable terrain to the west. Jack Peters 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. 

When I 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 $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.

Caltrans is protective of its famous ability to “get er done” ability to fund the state’s roads and continues to do in Mendocino, despite the Coast being famous for opposition and criticism of plans, something virtually non existent in the other rural counties. Caltrans historical magazines and old Mendocino Beacon’s chronicle how the state division of highways rode in and redid horse and buggy bridges from the 19th century. Mendocion was a big challenge, due to the super tall ravines. The state first fixed up the most dangerous wooden bridges, located at the bottom of the ravines, not the top. The county did not have the means to build the high bridges so the state came to the rescue. Then, in quick order they replaced the tall bridges. FDR’s Great Depression spending programs funded the Jack Peters Creek, Russian Gulch and Jughalde Creek bridges. Then WWII hit,, slowing everything down and scrapping plans for a concrete Albion River Bridge.

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!  Im glad he wasn’t some killer of indigenous or slippery robber baron. Most things were named for those guys in the 19th century.

That got to be the name. He wasn’t anybody super famous, he just lived there.