Project Spotlight: Tres Sendas Bridge

Photo by Russell Tamura

Location: Reinhart Redwoods Regional Park, Oakland, CA

Crew: East Bay Regional Park District

In 2017, 104-year-old Redwood tree had fallen and was identified by the Storm Damage Trail Crew supervisor, Colin Gallagher, as a candidate for a bridge due to its ideal location over a stream bed. There was no identified trail through this area, leading park users to walk everywhere, causing degradation to the stream and exposing them to hazards of slipping on exposed rocks and roots. At that time, work was undertaken to build a trail leading up to the tree's root ball, and also place the other end onto a large sill to be stabilized until further construction could begin. 

Fallen Redwood tree before bridge construction. Photo by Colin Gallagher.

Bridge sill was milled on site from the same tree and positioned underneath the log to support it. Photos by Colin Gallagher.

In October 2024, the park district's newly created Small Trails Crew was able to revive the project and complete construction by framing out a substructure notched into the tree, installing decking, building handrails, and finishing the approaches. The work principally took seven weeks with the railing logs previously harvested, peeled, and stacked to season by Oakland CiviCorps earlier in the year. The sub framing material was locally-sourced reclaimed redwood, the bulk of the deck boards were reclaimed redwood picnic tables from within the park district, the railing material was downed or dead-standing redwood trees from the immediate drainage, and the sill and step were both milled onsite from the tree itself.

Installing cross-pieces of sub framing. Photo by Lance Hostetler.

View of reclaimed Redwood sub framing. Photo by Russell Tamura.

View of sub framing and decking. Photo by Russell Tamura.

One challenge was custom fitting the railings and braces into one another since each piece was uniquely sized and shaped. Working in the rounded dimension of contoured natural stock was new for most of us and presented a learning curve, but by the end we were all adept at power carving with wood shaping disks. In hindsight, the build went smoothly and has been one of my favorite worksites in the park district to date.

CiviCorps Members prep logs for handrails. Photo by Russell Tamura.

Notching out handrail posts with an angle grinder. Photo by Lance Hostetler.

Joinery on handrails. Photo by Lance Hostetler.

The 50-foot bridge is located in Reinhardt Redwood Regional Park, Oakland, CA at the intersection of Tres Sendas and Starflower Trail. The closest staging area is Skyline Gate, one mile down Stream Trail and is moderately steep. The other access is from Canyon Meadow Staging area, down a much gentler 2 miles of Stream Trail.

Work done by EBRPD Trail Crew members: Lance Hostetler (lead), Russell Tamura, Sal Munoz, Cedric Cunningham; Redwood Regional park staff: Jamie Kozono, Lonnie White, Ryan Jones, Aaron Jefferson; and Oakland CiviCorp Trail Crew.

Prepping handrails. Photo by Russell Tamura.

Rearview of mud sill, approach step, and handrail upright. Photo by Lance Hostetler.

Embankment in foreground is remnants of root ball from the original fallen tree. Photo by Russell Tamura.

Hand-drawn map of the area by Colin Gallagher.

Photo by Russell Tamura.

Photo by Lance Hostetler