After five years as a full-time local reporter for the North County Times, Tom now writes a weekly column for the Times called “Sincerely Fallbrook.” (An archive of all his stuff since last summer can be found here.) Recently, driving to and from Oceanside, we have noticed that Caltrans is getting ready to widen the road. Tom’s column this Sunday was about the third bridge that’s going to be built over the San Luis Rey River at Vista Way, and so, last week, we headed out to take some pictures at that intersection. The paper didn’t run any of them, so we decided to post them here, nice and big, along with the first part of the column. We hope you enjoy. :)

A tale of three bridges

By TOM PFINGSTEN – For the North County Times

First there was the simple arch bridge —- two stone-and-asphalt lanes built in 1925 to carry motorists over the San Luis Rey River west of Bonsall.

It had style in the same way black-and-white films did. Sophisticated, you might say, especially considering the farms and groves that overlook the antique span.

But then it was too narrow. Passing a big rig was delicate business on your way out to the beach in the 1980s and early ’90s.

So they built another bridge, this one twisting over the river in an elegant curve and wide enough for two trucks to pass each other comfortably.

It felt like a superhighway compared with the original.

But then two lanes were too few.

Sometimes, in the early evening or on a hot Saturday in July, cars would be idling by the dozens atop that big span, their drivers wishing for another lane in each direction.

So, early this year, construction workers cut a swath in the afternoon shadow of the newer bridge, from riverbank to riverbank, and began to prepare for a third bridge.

Read the rest of the story at nctimes.com.