Pine Valley Creek Bridge, Highway bridge in Pine Valley, California.
The Pine Valley Creek Bridge, officially the Nello Irwin Greer Memorial Bridge, carries Interstate 8 over Pine Valley Creek Canyon near Pine Valley, California. Each direction has its own hollow concrete box girder, 12.8 m wide and 5.79 m deep, separated by an 11.6 m gap; the north span is 515.4 m long, the south 530.7 m. Slender paired piers rise from shared bases, and the deck stands 137 m above the creek.
Construction began in 1973 and the bridge opened in 1974 as part of Interstate 8. It was the first bridge in the United States built with the cast-in-place segmental balanced cantilever method. The design by project engineer Nello Irwin Greer rerouted the freeway south through Pine Valley Creek Canyon, avoiding the town of Pine Valley and its native pines, and shortened the route by 2 miles.
The bridge's official name, Nello Irwin Greer Memorial Bridge, was granted by a California State Senate concurrent resolution (SCR-33). It honors the project engineer who designed the "Pine Valley Project" section of Interstate 8 and rerouted the freeway south through Pine Valley Creek Canyon, sparing the town and its native pines.
The bridge carries Interstate 8 traffic and sits about 60 miles east of San Diego in California's desert region. It is a major traffic route, so travelers should expect regular vehicle flow when crossing.
The bridge's two box girders were built outward from the piers using launching gantries, with a roughly 100 m steel falsework bridge spanning the gap between them. Workers and materials reached each new section over this temporary span and the finished deck, leaving the creek valley below untouched.
The community of curious travelers
AroundUs brings together thousands of curated places, local tips, and hidden gems, enriched daily by 93,667 contributors worldwide.