The new $11 million Hospital Road Bridge crossing the San Benito River at Hollister, California will provide a state-of-the-art,  6-span, 580 foot long concrete bridge to replace the seasonally-flooded dirt surfaced low-water-crossing.  The project is funded by the Federal Highway Bridge Program, overseen by Caltrans Local Assistance.

 

Bengal selected a new alignment for the bridge to both minimize the length and improve the roadway geometry.  Bengal’s idea also significantly reduced project cost compared to the initial concept to build a new bridge on the existing roadway alignment.  These benefits were supported by Caltrans Local Assistance and the project scope was revised to accommodate Bengal’s innovations.

 

The bridge design was complicated by the location of the Calaveras Earthquake Fault located under the bridge along with scour concerns generated by the meandering San Benito River. Bengal performed extensive seismic analysis and engineering studies leading to an innovative design which allows the bridge to travel with the “creeping” earthquake fault during its lifetime, rather than fighting the fault to hold the bridge in place with extreme reinforcement.

 

The bridge is being built during 2 “construction seasons” divided by one winter shut-down to accommodate the possibility of high winter flows.

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Season 1 was completed during summer / fall 2020 and focused on construction of the deep foundations and bridge supports.

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Season 2 is in active construction and planned completion in fall of 2021. Construction includes the bridge superstructure and completion the approach roadways.