Countywide : Engineers to Study Bridges Over River

The Orange County Board of Supervisors agreed Tuesday to pay a local engineering firm $414,000 to look for potential structural problems in seven bridges spanning the Santa Ana River.

Officials want to determine whether the expansion of the river channel as part of a massive $1.5-billion federal flood-control project could damage the bridges and leave them less stable, especially in the event of an earthquake.

Once the study is completed later this year, officials predict that major improvements such as concrete reinforcement or restraining cables may be needed in about half of the bridges. All seven carry street traffic over the river channel in the Santa Ana-Fountain Valley area.

The supervisors awarded the contract for the study to Robert Bein, William Frost & Associates, an Irvine engineering firm whose partners include Orange County Republican Party Chairman Thomas Fuentes.

County officials said they chose the Bein firm over two others because the firm is already working with the Army Corps of Engineers on the flood-control project. “It was our judgment and recommendation that it was important that the same firm do the work on the bridges,” said William L. Zaun, the county’s public works director.

The channel bridges under study are: Talbert Avenue-MacArthur Boulevard; Slater-Segerstrom avenues; Edinger Avenue; McFadden Avenue; Bolsa Avenue-1st Street; 5th Street, and Fairview Street.