Albion bridge dispute enters new phase as critics file a lawsuit
Defenders of the historic Albion River Bridge are looking to a San Francisco judge to block upcoming Caltrans operations that they argue threaten the local environment and the centerpiece of their coastal village.
Drilling and geotechnical studies recently were authorized by the California Coastal Commission despite an outcry from the tiny hamlet’s residents, many who fear the work will interrupt bridge travel and inevitably lead to the replacement of the picturesque span at the river mouth.
Residents also object to the disruptive equipment, scheduled grading and removal of eucalyptus groves that will allow for placement of drilling platforms on the bluffs at either end of the bridge, in part through the use of helicopters.
A 20-page lawsuit was lodged by Peter Wells and Flurry Healy, co-owners of the Albion River Inn, and a Los Angeles investment banker, John Danhakl, who owns a large horse ranch just outside town called Whitesboro Farm. The suit, filed the day the Coastal Commission cast its support for Caltrans’ studies, challenges the commission’s jurisdiction over the issue and asserts the project violates coastal protections. It also argues the work would cause lasting damage to the scenic landscape and, thus, the local tourist economy.
Opponents distrust Caltrans’ motives, believing the agency already has decided to replace the well-known structure and will use the upcoming work to lay the groundwork.
“This is a project that will substantially and permanently disfigure this area,” one local critic, Ali Van Zee, told the commission during a Sept. 12 hearing in Fort Bragg. “And it is an area with a bridge that harmonizes and anchors what is an extraordinary and beautiful section of the Mendocino Coast.”
Commissioners, however, echoed Caltrans representatives in their subsequent approval of the plan, saying the geotechnical work is just one necessary step in deciding the fate of the World War II-era structure. It’s the last remaining wooden trestle bridge on California’s Highway 1.
They disputed the alarming impacts described by some critics and also highlighted the narrower scope of the project compared with what was initially proposed.
Several commissioners also spoke of their own hopes that Caltrans would find a way to preserve the aging bridge through rehabilitative efforts designed to strengthen it against earthquakes and stave off decay and corrosion already underway.
But the only way to know what’s possible, commissioners said, is to do the groundwork, analyzing subsurface soil and rock, measuring their stability, and determining what engineers might do to ensure there’s a way across the river in the future.
“You just can’t get some of that geotech analysis done unless you go there and do what the geotech people do,” said Coastal Commissioner Steve Padilla, who represents the San Diego Coast.
Opponents remain largely unconvinced. Some now view the state commission with some of the same disappointment and suspicion they harbor toward Caltrans, given the close coordination between the two sister agencies.
Caltrans’ critics also cite a preliminary engineering report recently obtained from two independently hired experts who concluded after visual inspections of the bridge that it is “not in need of immediate or near-term replacement” and “is in remarkably good condition.”
They’re eager to see what happens Friday, when San Francisco Superior Court is scheduled to consider the petition by the three property owners seeking a preliminary injunction to halt the geotechnical work.
Caltrans “cannot demonstrate a need, as required by the Coastal Act for a public works project, for the underlying replacement of the historic register-listed Albion River Bridge when there is evidence demonstrating that the bridge is safe, functional, and capable of indefinite use, and therefore also cannot justify the immediate Project,” the lawsuit states.
For plaintiff Peter Wells, the upcoming work feels like a direct threat to his 37-year-old bluff-top inn, restaurant and wedding site, located at the north end of the span.
“The impact of the work that they want to do is ultimately kind of horrendous for one who lives there, for one who has a business there,” Wells said.
The 73-year-old bridge, listed last year on the National Register of Historic Places, is 969 feet long and 26 feet wide, standing 150 feet above the Albion River where it enters Albion Cove.
It was completed in 1944 during wartime austerity, when materials like steel and concrete were diverted to the war effort. It was built from Douglas fir floated down the coast from Oregon and a recycled 130-foot railroad truss that once spanned the Feather River in Oroville.
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