New bridge gets $780,000 grant

Del Norte County was recently awarded a $780,000 grant from the California Forest Highway Tri-Agency to support replacing the George Tryon Bridge, a steel arch over South Fork Smith River on South Fork Road, originally built in 1948.

Hardhats are still a long way off. The Tri-Agency won’t release any funding for five years, which means the design process won’t get started until 2016, said Rosanna Bower with the Community Development Department.

The span has the lowest sufficiency rating of any bridge maintained by Del Norte County, according to an informational report by Bower.

The county is also applying for a grant from the Highway Bridge Program that will likely fund 88.5 percent of the $6.4 million project

The Federal Highways Administration will design and construct the bridge.

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