115
California’s wildlife bridge became a target for the right. Now it’s eyeing the finish line
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 25 Apr 2026
115 points (98.3% liked)
Solarpunk
8902 readers
3 users here now
The space to discuss Solarpunk itself and Solarpunk related stuff that doesn't fit elsewhere.
Join our chat: Movim or XMPP client.
founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I'm only wondering why the bridge is costing $114 million. Is it part of a larger project?
Building a large bridge like that, with the added complication of holding lots of protentially water soaked heavy soil and trees roots that try to break through the bottom isn't cheap. More or less the same reason why roof-top parks are prohibitively expensive in most cases.
What I find a bit surprising is that they didn't go for a tunnel for the cars, which is typically cheaper to do.
When your comparing a roof load to a bridge load, the bridge live load is going to be significantly higher than an uninhabited roof. A typical bridge in the USA is designed for 640 psf plus a 72,000 lb truck. In contrast, a new roof isn't designed for anything equivalent to that.
Hence me specifying roof-top parks. You know, with lots of waterlogged soil and trees. The static load of that is significantly higher, but of course heavy trucks cause lots of dynamic load, which is another difficult issue.