Contract No.: 08-0J8504
Contract Amount: $5,866,648
Job Duration: October 2014 to October 2016
Agency: Caltrans (District 8)

Work Performed: Steve P. Rados, Inc. replaced the Horse Thief Creek Bridge on Highway 138 in Hesperia. The construction work started in October 2014 and was completed in October 2016.

The new bridge, south of Highway 173 was designed to resist local environmental conditions. The two-lane undivided conventional highway serves the communities of Crestline, Summit Valley and Silverwood Lake. The bridge is at elevation 3,500’ and the roads to access the mountainous areas are small and extremely curvy.

The new Horse Thief Creek Bridge was built in two stages. Each stage was essentially three (Total 6) separate bridges that were eventually tied together into one. Horse Thief Creek Bridge is a 300’ bridge with three spans sitting on columns with CIDH foundations. The bridge is a precast girder bridge comprised of girders that are over seven feet tall. Due to one length of the middle span (185’) a difficult post tensioned girder splice was implemented to complete the span.

During replacement work, one half of the road was used for travel with an alternating lane and red light traffic-control signal. The temporary signal was used for the duration of the job. Motorist delays were minor or not at all through the construction. Horse Thief Creek is also home to the Arroyo Toad. Mitigation measures were put in place to keep impacts to the species at a minimum.