Replacement of Bridge over Town Creek - Pescadero Creek County Park
Great News. The bridge is completed and is open to equestrians
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Saturday Aug 31, 2019. The bridge was finally completed and open to horses. Los Viajeros had the privilege of being the first group to ride on it.. After the rains and sinkhole slowed the start of the project, Mike Bushue and his hardworking team of volunteers we able to finally start work in late June. Over 600 hours of hard work was involved in moving the materials to the site, installing the beams, building the footing, assembling the hand rails. Many generous donors supported the project with $25,700 of contributions to pay for the materials. The team from San Mateo Parks was great in supporting the project. Click on the link to see the construction of the bridge
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Many thanks to Mike Bushue and the volunteers who donated over 600 hours to build this bridge.
Thanks to the many generous supporters who donated $25,700 to this project:
Platinum Supporter ($5,000 +)
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The Don and Carole Tanklage Foundation
Willy Johnson
Gold Star supporters ($1,000 to $4,999)
Bay Area Barns and TrailsLos Viajeros
San Mateo County Parks Foundation
Tom Shanahon
Monterey Bay Equestrians
Silver Star supporters ($500 to $999)
James Baron
Ellie Ferrari
Patricia Griffin
Carol Joy Provan
Adda Quinn
Sarah Rivers
Anne Van Camp
Bronze Star supporters (to $499)
Susan Osofsky
Laura Paton
Liz Riehl
Clare Rittenhouse
Anonymous
Jane Kicuchi
Marilyn Miller
Liz Spiker
Marlene Takle
Backgound of the project
The West Brook Trail has been a favorite of hikers and equestrians for many years. It goes down the beautiful Town Creek valley among towering redwoods and crosses Town Creek near the bottom on a bridge that was constructed many years ago. The old bridge is 20 feet long and built with abutments at the edges of the creek. Over the years, the creek has eroded the western abutment, requiring the bridge and trail to be closed.
The team from ETRAC: Mike Bushue and Walter Gloskowski, designed a new bridge that would be 30 feet long, which will allow the new abutments to be set back 5 feet from the creek edges. It would not be necessary to do any work in the creek. The beams would be new Alaskan Yellow Cedar glue lams, which will be stronger than the existing bridge. It would also be 1 foot wider, to permit County staff to drive small equipment over the bridge in the case of an emergency or fire. The new bridge will be in the same location as the existing bridge, which will be removed.
January 2019 Update:
We got environmental approval and permits mid-December 2018 The goal was to have the new bridge done by June 1, 2019, so we can have a great summer riding in Jack Brook. Construction will begin shortly after April 15, if the weather cooperates. The order for the beams, which have a two month lead time, has been placed. The budget estimate is $25,000 total: $15,000 for materials, $10,000 for labor. Any excess contributions will be used for other trail repairs.
The Mounted Patrol Foundation is a 501(c)(3) charitable entity, so donations are tax-deductible to the amount permitted by law.
June 2019 Update:
The good news is we have raised all the money necessary to complete this project, purchased all the materials and have the contractors lined up to do the construction. Thanks to all of our generous donors! The bad news is the start date has been delayed due the rain. On April 16th , our original start date, the creek was still too high to cross. Then a major sink hole was discovered in the access road. Then a long wait to schedule heavy equipment to repair the sinkhole. Then it rained again! The hope is we can begin construction in June and be done by the end of July. Many thanks to Mike Bushue for all his hard work managing this project and to Walt Gloskowski for his engineering brilliance.
The new bridge layout is shown in the photos below. The pink tapes show the new bridge which is in the same location as the old bridge. The orange tapes show the outline of the top of the footing/abutment
View looking South for the new bridge location
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