This fall has finally brought a spate of road reopenings. By now you know that Morgan Territory Road has reopened as well as Alhambra Valley Road, which allows a complete circuit of the Three Bears—both were parts of recent Different Spokes rides. What I neglected to mention is that the Canyon bridge in Moraga also reopened about three weeks ago. The original bridge was scheduled to be replaced this year due to age when nature intervened in the form of earth movement, partly due to rain last spring, displacing the support piers and causing an immediate closure for safety reasons. The City of Moraga was finally able to install a temporary one-way bridge controlled by a signal and reopened the bridge on November 22 just before Thanksgiving. It allows the classic Orinda Pool Party route to be used again this summer as long as we don’t suffer another catastrophe this winter. Since we are probably staring at yet another dryish winter, this shouldn’t be a problem. Please note that the temporary bridge is one-way and users have to alternate crossing. Bicyclists may use either the roadway or the pedestrian walkway. But if you use the latter you must walk your bike. Don’t let your impatience get the better of you and ride across the pedestrian walkway even if there aren’t walkers. If you must ride rather than walk your bike, then wait for the green light to cross.
We rode the Three Bears a few days ago to check out the new section of Alhambra Valley Road. Looking down at the tiny creek it is hard to imagine that last winter’s rains were so prolific that it swelled to enormous proportion, enough to completely wash out the previous roadway. The culvert now is larger and should be able to withstand another epic winter should we have one. Alhambra Valley Road informally is the local dump for the local churls. You always saw piles of garbage, furniture, car tires, and garbage bags dumped by the side of the road because cretins didn’t want to take their shit to the county dump. Being completely cut off at both ends by the repair, it got a brief reprieve. But it didin’t take long for the Trash to furtively return: I counted no less than eight piles of dumpster crap along the road. Ah, back to normal!
On the slightly disappointing side, Calaveras Road is going to continue to be shut down to at least the end of September 2018. It is currently completely closed due to earth movement from last year’s rains and was scheduled to reopen in January 2018. But those rains also delayed the work on the dam so the contractors are now way behind schedule. When the new road that bypasses the undermined sections of roadway is finished, Calaveras will reopen to weekend use only. That is supposed to be “sometime in 2018”. Since the Fremont Freewheelers are going to put on the Primavera Century in April and use Calaveras, we hope that it’s sooner rather than later.
The Chain Letter 