Rio Puerco Bridge By Roger Zimmerman, P.E, Phd, Life Member ASCE (Extracted from BACKROUND TO NEW MEXICO SECTION OF NHCEL NOMINATION OF ROUTE 66)
Once Federal Funds could be used for highway and bridge construction, efforts were intensified to get the shortcut ready for full-time Route 66 travel. A necessary structure was a bridge over the Rio Puerco. One of the first things that was funded with a Federal Aid Project was the Rio Puerco Bridge on the Laguna cut-off.
The Rio Puerco had always been difficult to cross and extra measures had to be taken to establish a reliable highway crossing.The Rio Puerco has headwaters in Northern New Mexico.
In the 1930s, the Rio Puerco had large sand deposits where the Route 66 alignment was planned, and this provided a challenge to bridge designers. In the end, a 250 ft long Parker through-truss bridge was designed and constructed. This bridge was built in 1933.
The single-span Parker through truss steel bridge was fabricated by the Kansas City Structural Steel Company and built by F.D. Shufflebarger in 1933. Its substructure includes two concrete piers and massive concrete abutments set upon timber pilings. The total bridge length is 330 feet (100 m), including the 250 feet (76 m) span, which has ten 25 feet (7.6 m) panels, and two 40 feet (12 m) approaches.
With the completion of the Rio Puerco Bridge in 1933, transcontinental travelers could take the full shortcut across the state on an all-weather basis, sand this became a popular route even though it wasn't completely paved until 1937. This bridge is listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1999 as: "Rio Puerco Bridge," It is located approximately 19 miles (31 km) west of Albuquerque.
The NRHP listing indicates it was built to carry a past alignment of US 66 over the Rio Puerco, and in 1997 carried a frontage road for Interstate 40 (I-40). It no longer carries traffic, and it hasbeen bypassed by a different frontage road bridge.
The Rio Puerco Bridge located 40 yards (37 m) north of the 1-40, about 8.9 miles (14.3 km) west of 1-40 westernmost exit at Albuquerque.