Madera Approach Road to Friant Dam – Madera CA

Description

The Madera Approach Road was built to provide access to the Friant Dam on the San Joaquin River above Fresno CA, built by the Bureau of Reclamation and completed in 1940. It was built with a combination of state, local and federal funds, using Works Progress Administration (WPA) labor and completed in 1940.  The work covered about 15 miles of roadway, to wit:

“The first fifteen miles of the twenty mile Madera approach road to the Friant Dam is the portion of [former] State Highway Route 126 between Madera and the Fresno-Yosemite Highway [present highway 145]. The Division of Highways, in cooperation with the WPA and SRA, are now reconstructing approximately nine unimproved miles of this route. The completion of this work in the summer of 1940 will place the State highway section of the approach in shape to handle Friant Dam transportation. It is understood that Madera County has completed arrangements for the improvement of the remaining five miles of county road connection to the dam site. The highway improvement is estimated to cost on a WPA basis about $240,000. The State Division of Highways is supervising this day labor operation and contributing about $38,000. The State Relief Administration is participating to the extent of approximately $18,000 while the WPA cost will be about $184,000. The Division of Highways and SRA contributions are being used for the purchase of materials and rental of equipment. Because of these additional funds, it will be possible to operate the project on a more efficient equipment basis instead of the usual relief hand labor methods. Thus the project will not only provide an improved access to the Friant Dam, but will also help the serious relief problem of the San Joaquin Valley. This dual objective was made possible by the fact that state highway funds had been provided under a coincidental budgetary item for a smaller project.”

(California Highway & Public Works, January 1940)

A plaque reading “WPA 1941” can be found on site. According to a local source, there used to be plaques on each end of the bridge, but they were removed because people would stop to read them and traffic issues ensued.