Abolhassan Astaneh-Asl, Ph.D., P.E. is a professor emeritus from UC Berkeley and a world-renowned expert on structural engineering.
He’s research and written extensively about the historic Albion River Bridge, and we asked him if he would be willing to review the most recent bridge inspection report for the bridge.
He responded with a detailed analysis. Summary: the bridge is in much better condition than Caltrans claims. He writes, in part:
There are severe problems in the 2023 Inspection Report and many violations of the FHWA National Bridge Inspection Standards (NBIS) requirements, making the 2023 Inspection Report almost invalid. Many statements and notes in this inspection report that declare the bridge’s current condition as “Poor” are not factual and contradict the data collected by the Caltrans inspectors and reported in the later pages of the 2023 Inspection Report.
The entire letter appears below. Read it or better yet, act today—September 9—and write one or more comment letters using our easy templates.
Albion Bridge Stewards 
Thank you, Dr. Astaneh, for your clarification of the Inspection Report and for calling out the Caltrans revision of the data. An thank you, Jim, for keeping our eyes on this important aspect of the Bridge issue. The bridge’s safety is the most important thing to get right. I just received an email from Lisa Walker of DOT extending the comment deadline to Oct. 30th. I hope this will allow more coastal citizens and visitors to educate themselves about this boondoggle.
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Mistake in my first comment. Deadline is Oct. 9th
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