Maintaining California's Bridges CalTrans bridge inspectors are responsible for maintaining the safety and integrity of over 24000 bridges owned by the State of California and California's local government agencies.

Structure Maintenance and Investigations

Structure Maintenance and Investigations is responsible for managing the department's transportation structures. This includes performing bridge inspections in accordance with federal regulations on over 12,000 State Highway bridges and approximately 12,200 bridges owned by local government agencies, making structure work repair recommendations, determining the safe load capacity of all bridges, reviewing and approving encroachment permits and air space lease proposals involving structures, delivering plans, specifications and estimates for bridge maintenance on projects, and coordinating the protective coating work on over 800 state highway steel bridges.

STRUCTURE MAINTENANCE AND INVESTIGATIONS IS ORGANIZED INTO FIVE OFFICES:

Office of Structure Investigations - North
The Office of Structure Investigations - North is responsible for the investigation, evaluation, work recommendations and documentation of all city, county, state, and federal bridges in the following counties:

Alameda, Alpine, Amador, Butte, Calaveras, Colusa, Contra Costa, Del Norte, El Dorado, Fresno, Glenn, Humboldt, Kern (portions), Kings, Lake, Lassen, Madera, Marin, Mariposa, Mendocino, Merced, Modoc, Monterey, Napa, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, Sacramento, San Benito, San Francisco, San Joaquin, San Luis Obispo, San Mateo, Santa Barbara, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Shasta, Sierra, Siskiyou, Solano, Sonoma, Stanislaus, Sutter, Tehama, Trinity, Tulare, Tuolumne, Yolo, Yuba

Office of Structure Investigations - South
The Office of Structure Investigations - South is located in Los Angeles and is responsible for the investigation, evaluation, work recommendations and documentation of all city, county, state, and federal bridges in the following counties:

Imperial, Inyo, Kern (portions), Los Angeles, Mono, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, Ventura

Office of Structural Design and Analysis
The Office of Structural Design and Analysis is located in Sacramento and is responsible for prioritizing, budgeting and developing plans, specifications and estimates (PS&E) for bridge repair projects. It establishes the safe load capacity for all bridges and reviews encroachment permits. In addition, hydrologic and hydraulic evaluations and investigations are also performed for all existing bridges over waterways.

Office of Specialty Investigations and Bridge Management
The Office of Specialty Investigations and Bridge Management is located in Sacramento and is responsible for the special Fracture Critical and Underwater Investigations for specified bridges statewide. It provides statewide support for the Bridge Management System (PONTIS), the Bridge Inspection Records Information System (BIRIS), and The Structure Maintanance Automated Report Transmittal System (SMART). All historical bridge records (construction plans and bridge inspection reports) are maintained and archived by this Office. It also manages the Statewide Bridge Preservation Program (Capital Funded) and the Statewide Bridge Maintenance Program.

Office of Structure Investigations - Toll Bridges
The Office of Structure Investigation - Toll Bridges is located in Oakland and is responsible for the investigation, evaluation, work recommendations, repair design and documentation of all major toll crossings (except the Golden Gate Bridge)and toll plaza bridges in the bay area.