Structure 35 0122 · San Mateo County, CA

Whipple Avenue over US Highway 101

Carries Whipple Avenue over US Highway 101, 04-sm-101-6.62-rdwc.

Overall conditionGood

Set by its lowest-rated component: Deck and Superstructure and Substructure at 7 of 9.

How ratings work
Decksets the rating7/9 · Good
Superstructuresets the rating7/9 · Good
Substructuresets the rating7/9 · Good
0 failed4 poor6 fair9 excellent

Elevation

Side view, colored by inspection rating
SEMI-TRUCK · 72 FT173 FT OVERALL25 FT0ELEVATION · LENGTHS TO SCALE
Deck 7/9Superstructure 7/9Substructure 7/9

173 ft end to end, longest span 83 ft: about 2 semi-trucks nose to tail. Lengths and the semi-truck on the deck are drawn to the same scale. Each part is colored by its latest inspection rating. The inventory records lengths but not heights or the layout of the shorter spans, so those are drawn as typical for a multi-beam bridge.

Built1958rebuilt 1984
Length172.9 ft52.7 m
Daily traffic—reported figure implausible
Last inspectedAugust 2023every 24 months

Location

StateCalifornia
CountySan Mateo
Location04-sm-101-6.62-rdwc
CarriesWhipple Avenue
CrossesUS Highway 101
Coordinates37.49608, -122.23308

Physical Characteristics

MaterialPrestressed Concrete
DesignStringer/Multi-beam
Total Length172.9 ft (52.7 m)
Max Span83.0 ft (25.3 m)
Deck Width77.4 ft (23.6 m)
Deck Area1243.7 sq m
Main Spans2
Year Built1958 (reconstructed 1984)

Traffic

Avg Daily Traffic201,000 (2000)
That is about 50,250 vehicles per lane per day — beyond what any U.S. road carries (the busiest freeways run about 25,000–30,000). It is almost certainly a data-entry error in the National Bridge Inventory, so we leave this bridge out of traffic rankings.
Truck Traffic7%
Lanes On Bridge4
Lanes Under Bridge10

Inspection & Ownership

Last InspectionAugust 2023
Inspection FrequencyEvery 24 months
OwnerState Highway Agency
Historical SignificanceBridge is not eligible for the National Register
Scour CriticalNot applicable
Structure Number35 0122

How Bridge Ratings Work

Inspectors rate each major part of a bridge (the deck you drive on, the superstructure of beams that holds it up, and the substructure of piers and abutments beneath) on a 0–9 scale. A bridge's overall condition is its lowest of those ratings, so one deteriorated component makes the whole bridge "poor."

0Failed
1Imminent failure
2Critical
3Serious
4Poor
5Fair
6Satisfactory
7Good
8Very good
9Excellent
Good · lowest component 7–9
Fair · lowest component 5–6
Poor · lowest component 0–4

A poor rating is not a closure. It means the bridge is flagged for priority repair or replacement; bridges judged unsafe are closed or posted with weight limits. The waterway (channel) rating is reported, but it does not count toward the overall classification.

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