Reused bridge project in Nevada City one step closer to seeing the light of day: Maybert Bridge would connect Clark and Spring Streets

Additionally, the council authorized a project contingency of five percent not to exceed $2,700.

However, the bridge is not yet a done deal, said City Manager Sean Grayson.

“What the council approved is a principal design of the project using an old bridge and new location,” Grayson said. “So it’s not the installation costs or anything like that.”

Grayson added that the funds for the project so far are largely coming from funds stemming from Bay Area traffic.

“It’s just initial design base because we have what’s called CMAQ money,” he said. “It’s Congestion Mitigation Air Quality funds and toll funds mostly from the Bay Area things. Their smog impacts us, essentially, so we get a small amount of money. That’s where the money is coming from to do this initial design.”

The bridge project would span from the corner of Clark Street where it meets the Sacramento Street overcross to the city’s Spring Street parking lot behind the National Hotel. The bridge, just 80 feet long and 10.5 feet wide, would provide more satellite and employee parking for downtown employees and guests.

The historic bridge was carefully disassembled, braced, and salvaged and received recognition as the Structural Engineering Project of the Year from the American Society of Engineers, Sacramento. It has been housed in a yard owned by the city on Zion Street.

“There’s a driveway that goes down and it is dirt,” said Grayson. “It is what Caltrans used to build the highway. So that became the city’s when they completed the highway project. We are intending to pave that and make it an overflow or employee parking lot in the future. That parcel extends all the way past the Flume’s End and the backside of (South) Pine Street there. And that parcel is a Caltrans right of way along Deer Creek.”

Grayson said the city and local residents have long been seeking a direct path between the two areas, the only real options at this point being the South Pine Street bridge which only has one side for pedestrians and bikes, while still accommodating regular traffic across the bridge.

The Maybert Bridge—one of several for the town of Washington, and constructed in 1895—was obtained by Nevada City from the county. Grayson wasn’t sure of its year of origin but said that it was retired because it simply couldn’t handle modern vehicular traffic. More likely, he said, in its original space it served horse-and-buggy traffic and the early implementation of motorized vehicles.

“We got this bridge in 2016 so that makes a lot of opportunities viable,” said Grayson. “I know (City Engineer) Bryan (McAlister) has been working with property owners to see if there would be better siting or better locations—a straighter shot, so to speak. That would be across private property and over the years there has been some interest and COVID came along and (resulted in) less interest in those private properties.”

NV5 will will assess and incorporate surveys conducted by the city which include topographic surveys, base mapping, utility mapping, creek cross sections of the bridge site and as-built bridge documentation, stated a staff report issued for last Wednesday’s council meeting. Additional survey data, the report declared, is “beyond the scope of this preliminary phase of the project.”

Mayor Gary Petersen was delighted that the council approved the contract with NV5, Inc.

“I think the reuse of an old bridge project is just great; recycling that old bridge that will connect the Clark Street area to the back of the National Hotel,” said Petersen after the council voted. “It was a really old bridge that was in the town of Washington that we are going to reuse. It’s just such a wonderful thing.”