|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Slideshow: A crane crew lifted the new bridge into place on the Valley Course at The Club at Castlewood on Jan. 7, 2025. (Photo by Chuck Deckert) 
Construction crews work on the bridge before its installation. (Photo by Chuck Deckert) 
Castlewood members turned out Jan. 6, 2025 to watch the bridge installation, only to be turned away after an issue delayed the move by one day. (Photo by Chuck Deckert) 
Construction crews work on the bridge before its installation. (Photo by Chuck Deckert) 
One of the largest construction cranes in operation in the Bay Area was used for the Castlewood bridge project. (Photo by Chuck Deckert) 
Construction crews work on the bridge before its installation. (Photo by Chuck Deckert) 
A crane crew lifted the new bridge into place on the Valley Course at The Club at Castlewood on Jan. 7, 2025. (Photo by Chuck Deckert) 
A crane crew lifted the new bridge into place on the Valley Course at The Club at Castlewood on Jan. 7, 2025. (Photo by Chuck Deckert) 
A crane crew lifted the new bridge into place on the Valley Course at The Club at Castlewood on Jan. 7, 2025. (Photo by Chuck Deckert) 
Construction crews work on the bridge before its installation. (Photo by Chuck Deckert)
After running into unexpected challenges that delayed the process, workers using a huge crane lifted and swung the 250-foot steel bridge over the Arroyo de la Laguna into place at The Club at Castlewood in Pleasanton on Tuesday.
Work crews had planned to put the new bridge in place midday Monday, but ran into hiccups that delayed the lift until the next morning. In an email, John Vest, Castlewood general manager, wrote that the grand-opening ceremony will take place Jan. 25. The bridge decking and other finishing touches need to be completed as well as a paint job.
The bridge is a much longer and bigger structure than its predecessor that was damaged in the New Year’s Eve 2022 storms. That was driven by Alameda County’s requirement that the replacement bridge be built outside of the flood plain.
The new bridge arrived in three sections that were bolted together on site before the huge crane was assembled by a smaller crane. It also arrived in three pieces. The weight of the bridge was so much that the counterweights on the crane were many 10-ton disks.
After the storm damage, the club allowed play on holes three and four that run along and across the arroyo, but closed both when construction began on both sides of the creek. Members could not use the existing bridge for safety reasons, so members will be delighted to have 18 holes back with the bridge. Until construction began, Valley Course golfers had to backtrack after teeing off on the par-3 fourth hole and go back over the Castlewood Drive bridge and then go up the third fairway to the fourth green.
Members gathered both midday Monday and early Tuesday morning to witness the lift and swinging the bridge into place.
The replacement cost $3.7 million.
