El Dorado County Department of Transportation staff break ground Sept. 6 on the new, $93 million bridge to Mosquito. Mountain Democrat photo by Eric Jaramishian

• $93 million project county’s biggest

The long-anticipated construction of the new Mosquito Bridge at the South Fork of the American River is under way. At a Sept. 6 groundbreaking event for the project off the 8,000 block of Mosquito Road county leaders, Department of Transportation staff and Shimmick Construction workers gathered in excitement for the start of the long-anticipated project.

“We feel we have a wonderful contractor, a wonderful consultant and team,” said El Dorado County Director of Transportation Rafael Martinez. “It’s just perfectly poised for us to embark on such a great project for a community that is going to be getting a bridge that they so direly need.” 

Serving area residents since 1867, the historical Mosquito Bridge is one of three suspension bridges like it west of the Mississippi River. 

Once the new bridge is complete the old bridge will remain for pedestrian use only.

The ridgetop to ridgetop replacement project is a big one. Previously, Martinez said this would be the biggest capital project to ever be constructed in county history. It has a price tag of $93 million that will be fully reimbursed to the county, courtesy of the federal Highway Bridge Program.

In addition to soaring 400 feet above the river channel, the new bridge will span 1,180 feet across the canyon.The bridge includes two, 12-foot-wide lanes with 5-foot shoulders, a 54-inch-high barrier with tubular railing, timber textured barriers and rock texturing.

The first part of construction includes realigning Mosquito Road on the north side of the canyon, which will allow new bridge abutment to be constructed there.The next stage involves the actual construction of the new bridge and approach roadway on both the north and south sides of the canyon, which will be performed off-alignment of the current Mosquito Road, according to the Department of Transportation’s project timeline. 

This process includes constructing the piers, columns and the superstructure itself, which will most likely take until mid-2025 to complete. The project will wrap up with the construction of final roadway tie-ins, bridge barrier rails, metal beam guardrails and any final restoration operations.

Commuters can expect intermittent road closures during these phases of the projects. 

The project has been in the works for more than 30 years and after numerous studies and extensive coordination, the county Board of Supervisors approved the project bid to Shimmick Construction Company May 17, which previously worked on Forebay Dam improvements for the El Dorado Irrigation District in 2017. They are the 14th largest contractor in the nation. 

How about doing some research with Cal Fire and find out how much damage was done to the Placer County Big Tree Grove. The grove includes redwood trees. The biggest concern is the very large "THE PERSHING TREE". that has survived years of fires in the area.