Nearly half-million dollar project to strengthen railroad bridge in Glendor, Calif.

Los Angeles County this week began a nearly half-million-dollar project aimed at preventing earthquake damage to a railway bridge in Glendora, Calif., officials said, according to the San Gabriel Valley Tribune.

Work on the bridge,
located on Route 66 between Loraine and South Lone Hill avenues, is expected to
last about 70 days, according to Los Angeles County
Department of Public Works Construction Office Engineer Pirouz Bozorgnia.

"It’s basically
strengthening of steel-based frames and footing, painting structural steel and fastening
bearings," Bozorgnia said. "It’s seismic rehabilitation of the
bridge."

The bridge
accommodates two freight trains per day and is part of the Metro Gold Line,
Metrolink officials said.

The county has been
in contact with Glendora city officials since 1998 to get the project started,
Bozorgnia said.

Bridges are
inspected at least once a year, according to Los Angeles County Department of Public
Works spokesman Mike Kaspar.

The seismic
retrofitting program came about after the magnitude-6.9 Loma Prieta earthquake that
struck the San Francisco Bay area in 1989, Kaspar said.

"Basically the
state of California said `we need to go and do a full look at all the bridges
in the state and L.A. County was given supervision over our county to look at
them,"’ Kaspar said.

The project on the
Route 66 bridge will shut down one lane on the street in each direction, Bozorgnia
said. For the first stage of the project, the inside lane in each direction
will be closed and for the second half of the project, the outside lanes will
be closed, he said.

"Initially
they’re going to be working to add columns, so we have to close lanes closer to
the median to provide safety for workers," he said.