Congress is celebrating the centennial of historic Route 66. But that’s about all Washington is doing immediately for the California’s repair-starved sections of the road.
Parts of the legendary Chicago-to-Los Angeles highway need fixing, notably in California, where officials say some bridges on the historic highway are in “critical” need of improvements.
San Bernardino County’s section of the highway has 126 timber bridges that were originally built between 1929 and 1931 and require replacement.
They’re rapidly showing signs of their age, said Brendon Biggs, deputy director of operations at the county’s public works department.
“These bridges are over 80 years old and they’re made of wood so they’re past their service life,” he said. “It is critical ... We kind of use the expression some of them are being held together by termites holding hands.”
The House, though, is more in a mood to praise than to fund. It unanimously passed a bill Monday that would convene a committee to plan the road’s centennial celebration in 2026. The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will now consider the bill.
The legislation does address the repair issue, requesting that the Secretary of Transportation meet with the governors of affected states and produce a plan for preserving the highway. But that plan wouldn’t be due to the House’s transportation and infrastructure committee until three years from the legislation’s passage, meaning relief for affected areas could still be several years away.
Route 66, which winds through two-thirds of the country, has long been seen as a road where drivers could experience the American heartland and beyond. By the 1970s, much of the route had been replaced by major interstates, but about 85 percent of it is still drivable today.
“The highway winds from the shores of Lake Michigan across the agricultural fields of Illinois, to the rolling hills of the Missouri Ozarks, through the mining towns of Kansas,” says the National Park Service.
Then, it continues, the road goes “across Oklahoma where the woodlands of the East meet the open plains of the West, to the open ranch lands of Texas, the enchanted mesa lands of New Mexico and Arizona, to the Mojave Desert, and finally to the ‘land of milk and honey’ — the metropolis of Los Angeles and the shores of the Pacific Ocean.”
Bill sponsors include Reps. Rodney Davis, D-Ill., Grace Napolitano, D-Calif., and Pete Aguilar, D-Calif.
“It can be a major undertaking for U.S. DOT to work with the states on creating a preservation plan for Route 66, especially since the route is 2,451 miles long. We want this preservation plan to be thorough and provide detailed ideas on the preservation of the entire route,” wrote Napolitano’s spokesman, Jerry O’Donnell, in an email.
In San Bernardino County’s section of Route 66. across the Mojave Desert between Barstow and Needles, five of the affected bridges have already been closed due to flooding damage after storms. The county is awaiting funding to repair and reopen them.
As early as 1949, California’s state department of transportation indicated maintenance needs for the bridges. The bridges are decades beyond their service life, Biggs said.
The department has organized the bridges into priority groups of 10, and hopes to get all of the bridges restored within the decade. In the meantime, the county has been repairing the bridges when possible by reinforcing their wooden beams and closing or restricting access when necessary.
Much of the effort, though, needs Federal Highway Administration funds to get the job done.
Just under 60 of the bridges have weight restrictions, meaning larger vehicles like trucks are unable to pass through, according to the public works department’s website. The department has been using such restrictions to keep as many bridges as possible open, Biggs said.
That can be problematic for trucks looking for a detour from Interstate 40, which parallels Route 66. If an accident disrupts traffic flow on the interstate, and truckers can’t use Route 66 and they can end up stuck.
This section of Route 66 is also the only access to a stretch of a principal transcontinental rail line. When railroad repairs are necessary, the weight restrictions make transporting heavy equipment difficult, Biggs said.
Christine Condon: @cchristine19
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