Dolores River Bridge


The Dolores River Bridge was a through truss bridge that spanned the Dolores River near Bedrock, Colorado, United States. It carried State Highway 90 and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Overview

The bridge was designed by the Colorado Department of Highways and was fabricated by Midwest Steel & Iron Works. It was installed in 1952 by contractor Gardner Construction Company. It was located at milepost 15.22, east of Bedrock. Its structure was long and wide, with a main span of and a roadway width of.

Dismantling and replacement

In 2014, inspectors discovered a crack in one of the bridge's main beams. The Colorado Department of Transportation then closed the bridge to traffic and installed a one-lane, temporary bridge. With the temporary bridge in place, the old bridge was dismantled, its pieces labeled and stored in a warehouse for possible future use as a footbridge or bike trail bridge. CDOT then constructed a new precast-concrete girder bridge, which opened to traffic in 2017.