New bridge just west of Folsom Dam will finally reduce much of the traffic congestion in Folsom.On Thursday, February 22, 2007, federal and local officials, including Reps. John Doolittle and Dan Lungren, broke ground to start construction on a new $117 million bridge. This four-lane bridge, with a new two mile connector road will be a welcomed addition to the Folsom landscape.
Due to the 9-11 terrorist attack in 2001, the decision was made, supposedly for safety reasons, to close the dam road linking El Dorado Hills and Granite Bay resulting in severe traffic congestion on Folsom's residential streets and Historic District Shopping Center for the past three years.
Amid much controversy, Federal officials felt that public vehicles driving on the dam created an unacceptable risk to the safety of the dam, yet nothing was ever done to prevent boats from cruising right up to the face of the dam on the lake. This new Folsom bridge, approximately 100 meters west of the dam, was acceptable to federal officials and as a result, financing was quickly approved.
Mayor Andy Morin explained that if the project remains on schedule and the bridge is completed by December 2008 as planned, it will have been only five years from conception to completion, a very ambitious and fast track schedule for a project of this magnitude. The Mayor explained that these type of projects usually take twice that amount of time.
Folsom City Council member Kerri Howell relates how Jack Kipp, the first Mayor of Folsom, told the story of how the Lake Natoma Crossing was first conceived at a bar in the Folsom Hotel, back in the summer of 1958 - 41 years before the bridge was finally completed in 1999.
"This moved along with the speed of light," Mayor Andy Morin said. "It's amazing to think that in a year and a half, and maybe a few months, we'll be cutting a ribbon."
"The pressure's on," said Creg Hucks, Army Corps project manager. "That's an aggressive schedule."
At this point in time, there is not even an official name for the bridge.
"We're just calling it the new Folsom bridge for now," city spokeswoman Sue Ryan said. "Maybe by the time we finish we'll have one."
Since the Folsom Dam road was closed, approximately 18,000 vehicles a day had to find other routes across the American River. The three closest bridges - Rainbow Bridge, Lake Natoma Crossing and the Hazel Avenue bridge took the brunt of the load, with most of the traffic flowing through Folsom's Historic Business and Residential District.
Many retailers have experienced a 40% reduction in business volume since the closing of the Folsom Dam road. The resulting traffic congestion through the Historic Business District has literally pushed away many of the local customers and tourists who used to love stopping by to browse and shop.
Many people who have to drive that route during rush hour have found they had to allow at least an additional 1/2 hour to their drive time. A recent survey last year reported that Folsom residents felt that the additional traffic congestion caused by the dam road closure was the worst problem in town.
The bridge will span a 1,000 foot wide gorge, 200 feet above the American River. Architecturally it is clean and functional, designed to carry four lanes of automobile and truck traffic, along with bicycle lanes and a pedestrian walkway.
It will connect Folsom-Auburn Road on the west (intersecting several hundred meters south of the current dam road) with East Natoma Street on the east.
This is a far cry from the original Truss Bridge that was built over the American River in Folsom back in 1893, when this bridge was called "The Finest Highway Span on the Pacific Coast."
In order to lobby and promote the urgent need for the new Folsom bridge, former Mayor, Steve Miklos and other City Council members traveled to Washington, D.C., at least three times a year for several years.
According to a recent article in the Sacramento Bee on February 22, 2007, "Most of the estimated $117 million cost will be funded by the federal government, but the city of Folsom and the state kicked in $28 million for the project, including funds from Measure A, the state Department of Water Resources and the Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency." Other quotes as shown above also came from this same article in the Sacramento Bee.
There is good news and bad news regarding the location of this project. The good news is that most of the construction is in a remote area, well behind locked and guarded gates allowing only authorized personnel and construction workers access, so there should be very little traffic disruptions throughout the entire construction process. The bad news is that this remote area provides little opportunity for the public to observe the construction process first hand.
It is my hope that this website blog offers a forum for construction workers and other authorized personnel to take pictures and freely post them along with regular construction updates. I will, of course, also attempt to post updates as often as possible.
This is an open invitation to anyone who has access to the bridge construction site to please e-mail me pictures of all phases of construction, along with some text in the e-mail to explain what the pictures are showing.
Please feel free to call me at any time to share information. My contact information is all shown on my California Home Network website contact page.
Best regards,
Patrick Warholic,
Realtor and Internet Home Marketing Specialist
