After years of planning, the Santa Barbara County Public Works Department broke ground on March 30 on the Tepusquet Bridge project. The long-awaited bridge will connect the Tepusquet Canyon community to the rest of the county, improve public safety services, and increase potential tourism to local wineries.
“This is a $4.2 million shot to the economy,” 5th District Supervisor Joe Centeno said during a ceremony at the bridge site on Tepusquet Road. “[The bridge] will be a tremendous help to local schools and wineries.”
Designs from the County Public Works Department show the almost 35-foot-wide bridge will stretch about 700 feet across the Sisquoc River and include two lanes and two shoulders. Construction on the bridge is expected to run from April 6 to Dec. 28.
The new bridge will increase access to land north of the river, which in the past could only be reached by using a seasonal summer crossing or country roads off Foxen Canyon Road.
For Tepusquet residents like Peggy Salas, the bridge couldn’t come soon enough.
“We’ve seen so many ambulances and fire trucks come down the road … and have to turn around,” Salas said during the ceremony. “We’re very lucky no lives were lost because the road was washed out.”
Salas, a 38-year Tepusquet resident, began writing to the county more than a decade ago, inquiring about the construction of a bridge over the river. In 2002, the county requested funding for the bridge from the Federal Highway Bridge Program. Federal funding came through in 2005, and more money for the project came from the county’s General Fund and the California Department of Fish and Game.
In an interview with the Sun, Public Works Director Scott McGolpin said the Department of Fish and Game funded and ultimately approved the project because of the bridge’s positive impact on the environment.
“Whenever you can lift the road off of the bottom of the river and up into the air and allow an unobstructed flow of water, it’s beneficial for the local habitat,” McGolpin said.
This article appears in Apr 2-9, 2009.
