World War I was raging across Europe when the Seventh Street Bridge over the Tuolumne River between Modesto and Ceres opened in March 1917 to Model As and horse-drawn wagons.
But over a century of wear and tear has taken its toll and it’s soon coming down, to be replaced by a wider modern structure that will evoke a similar architectural style.
The 109-year-old bridge will carry traffic for the last time on Sunday, March 15 as the bridge will close on Monday, March 16 to be demolished.
Construction on the new structure is expected to be completed in late 2027 or early 2028.
Traffic will be detoured around the construction on nearby Highway 99 and the South Seventh Street Bridge. But the end of the storied bridge will be a disruption for pedestrians who often walk from the various trailer parks along Seventh Street into downtown Modesto.
Officials have long wanted to replace the bridge but needed to wait for full funding in a vicious catch 22 that saw costs spike with each year of delay.
In December the Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors approved an $85.2 million contract with MCM Construction to demolish and replace the 1,170-foot span bridge. MCM’s bid was nearly eight percent lower than the engineer’s estimate.
With a contingency of $8.5 million and environmental permits, consultant construction support and city of Modesto and county staff costs, the project could top out at $95.7 million
The new bridge will be considerably wider than the historic bridge and will include:
• Two standard travel lanes in each direction with a raised median;
• Five-foot-wide shoulders on each side of the bridge that will serve as Class II bicycle lanes;
• A Class 1 multi-use path on the west side of the bridge;
• Standard sidewalk on the east side of the bridge.
The decorative concrete lions at either end of the bridge will be saved for a new pedestrian plaza that would connect the new bridge with the proposed Tuolumne River Regional Park’s Gateway Parcel and to the Tuolumne River itself.
The historic bridge consists of a series of “canticrete” type trusses supported on reinforced concrete piers and abutments all founded on concrete or timber piling. The Average Daily Traffic (ADT) volume is approximately 15,700 vehicles per day. The Seventh Street Bridge is listed on the Caltrans Local Agency Bridge List with an extremely low sufficiency rating (5.1 on a scale of 0 to 100) because of structural and functional deficiencies.
Experts say that even though the bridge is structurally sound, there is significant spalling, advanced signs of alkali silica reaction, exposed and deteriorating steel reinforcing and considerable deflection at the cantilevered sections. The bridge has been weight restricted to four tons gross load since 1979 and restricted from legal truck load weights since 1937.
The project will include modifications at the Seventh Street/B Street/Tuolumne Boulevard intersection and at Crows Landing Road at the Seventh Street intersection.
At the time the bridge was built, it was the only bridge crossing the Tuolumne River in Modesto as the route was then Highway 99. Later came the Ninth Street Bridge and the Highway 99 bridge.
The site was originally a ferry crossing established in 1868 by William Davis and sold in 1877 to Daniel Whitmore who used it to access his vast land holdings that would bear the Ceres town site. The Lions bridge is actually the third at that location. The first bridge made of wood was finished in 1883 at a cost of $18,600 but it lasted only eight months before it was partially destroyed by heavy river current. It was repaired but the bridge was inadequate and became worn from wagon wheels so it was replaced in 1897. The second bridge was deemed rickety in time and thus the study Lions Bridge was made of concrete in 1916.
The bridge is known throughout the region for the four lions that have been standing sentinel at both ends. Time and the elements – or possibly vandals – have caused the north lions to lose their lower jaws, which was the weakest part of the structure. On the south end, a lion is missing its nose.
Being that Stanislaus County was more of an agricultural county than it is today, initially some suggested cows post at either end quickly dismissed. However the Temperance influence in the county at that time prompted officials to christen the bridge by breaking a bottle of milk over the head of the lion at the north end instead of champagne.
