APTOS — Big changes are in the air at the work site on the Valencia Road bridge at Aptos School Road where winter storms washed out a culvert beneath the heavily-travelled roadway.
The damage forced officials to shut down Valencia Road above Trout Gulch Creek Jan. 23.
Jason Hoppin, communications manager for the County of Santa Cruz, said Friday that a work crew was pressing forward on a new modular temporary truss bridge.
“They are working on assembling each piece and checking out each step of the way to make sure it is safe,” he said. “The pieces are delivered to the site, much like an Erector set. They use tons of bolts, thousands of bolts.”
“The target completion date is Aug. 7, when it will be open to traffic, which is about a week before school starts, so we are going to get it in before the wire,” Hoppin added.
Besides closing off a neighborhood, the road damage also forced the closure of Valencia Elementary for the last half of the school year.
