Better Ask Barry: The Salinas River bridge is almost done

KION is launching a new feature this year that aims to answer the burning questions we all have. We call it “Better Ask Barry.”

In this first installment, Barry Brown looks at the status of a project to widen the Salinas River bridge on Highway 68:

Merritt, from Salinas wants to know: “When is that Salinas River bridge project going to be finished?”

Work to widen the bridge, bike and pedestrian lanes started in the spring of 2016. Since then, there’s been lots of digging and scraping and occasional traffic delays.

“It’s terrible,” said Merritt Guthrie, who commutes to Salinas daily. “It’s been terrible for two years now. What the hold up is, I don’t know. It just seems like they work for a couple days and then everyone disappears.”

Caltans says the work is on schedule and, by contract, is required to be finished by February.

Caltrans spokesperson Susana Cruz says the weather cooperates, it could be done before that.

“It all depends on the weather now,” she said. “I would say they have about a month of work. Let’s say there’s no rain. Then the completion date would hopefully be by the end of December. And it’s not going to rain every day, so it won’t be pushed back for an eternity, but they have until mid February (the 13th) to complete.”

After construction is finished, work will continue below the bridge for another year, as crews clean up the worksite and plant vegetation.

Caltrans says they usually expect these projects to take about two to three years — so this one is on schedule — and we were probably spoiled by the Pfeiffer Canyon bridge, which was a priority project and finished in under a year.

If you have a question you’d like answered, you Better Call Barry at ( 831) 784-6400, or by email at barry.brown@kion546.com, or at kion546/com/share.