Skip to main content

Cement Plant Road (Calaveras County)

By

Cement Plant Road is a privately owned 5.5-mile corridor located in the Sierra Nevada foothills of Calaveras County.  The roadway was constructed as a short line railroad during the 1930s by Calaveras Cement from Pool Station Road to a cement quarry east of Calaveritas.  Despite being a private road, the corridor of Cement Plant Road crosses over numerous public highways via unique bridge structures.  Pictured as the blog cover is the Cement Plant Road trestle crossing over Calaveritas Road. 




The history of Cement Plant Road and corridor exploration

Cement Plant Road was built initially built as a short line railroad in the early 1930s by Calaveras Cement.  The line served as an extension of the Kentucky House Branch of the Southern Pacific Railroad which originated out of Lodi.  

Calaveras Cement incorporated in 1925 and was based out of a plant located on Pool Station Road.  The company is most well-known for supplying cement to the construction site of Pardee Dam.  The company would construct a 5.5-mile private road from their plant to quarries located east of Calaveritas. 

Calaveras Cement would be sold in 1959 and again in 1979.  The company would be shuttered in 1983 due to being unable to compete with foreign cement prices and a high cost to modernize their plant.  The Kentucky House Branch was deconstructed gradually during the 1990s and the former short line to the Calaveras Cement quarry was converted into a private road. 

Below the Cement Plant Road trestle can be seen crossing over Calaveritas Road at the town Calaveritas.  The community was founded by Mexican miners in 1849 and is thought to have peaked with a population of about 800 by 1857. Much of Calaveritas would burn in a fire during 1858 which would lead to it declining.

Pictured is the Calaveras Cement Bridge crossing over California State Route 49 near Calaveritas Creek.  This structure is a hybrid concrete and wooden trestle design which was built in 1935.  The bridge has a clearance of 19.7 feet which is embedded into the concrete facade.

The western terminus of Cement Plant Road can be found at Pool Station Road.  Signage facing east indicates the corridor as a private road but is open for a half mile to All Rocks Aggregate Materials.  



The ruins of the Calaveras Cement Plant can be found west of Pool Station Road. 


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Cajon Pass; Cajon Pass Toll Road, National Old Trails Road, US Route 66/91/395 and Interstate 15

By
This past weekend I spent some time in Cajon Pass traversing the many historic road alignments. Cajon Pass is located in San Bernardino County, California along the San Andreas Fault.  Cajon Pass  serves the boundary line between the Mojave Desert, the San Gabriel Mountains, San Bernardino Mountains and San Bernardino Valley.  Cajon Pass is historically one of the most traveled transportation corridors in American California and presently is served by four rail lines, Interstate 15 and California State Route 138. While Cajon Pass is known mostly for carrying US Route 66 it has carried numerous other signed highways that have had a significant impact on regional and national road travel.  While this is my best attempt to compile everything from the best sources I could find into one single transportation history blog regarding road travel in Cajon Pass I suspect as time goes on this article will be frequently updated.  If you have any information that you ...
1 comment
Read more

Pardee Dam Road

By
Pardee Dam is a 358-foot-high concrete structure located near Campo Seco at the Calaveras County and Amador County Line.  Pardee Dam impounds the Mokelumne River which forms the namesake Pardee Reservoir.  Pardee Dam was completed during 1929 and is part of the East Bay Municipal Utility District.  Pardee Dam is accessed by the namesake Pardee Dam Road which crosses the structure via the one-lane road seen as the blog cover photo.   Part 1; the history of Pardee Dam Road The closest community to Pardee Dam is that of Campo Seco on the Calaveras County side of the Mokelumne River.  Campo Seco was founded in 1850 by Mexican Miners who worked placer claims in Oregon Gulch during the height of the California Gold Rush.  Campo Seco would reach a population of about three hundred by 1860 spurred by the numerous mining claims in the area.  Main Street of Campo Seco flowed directly into the Campo Seco Turnpike which had been authorized by the California L...
2 comments
Read more

California State Route 82/Old US Route 101 on the El Camino Real from San Francisco to Interstate 380

By
After completing Interstate 380 I made my way northward into the City Limits of San Francisco to drive the northernmost portion of California State Route 82. CA 82 is 52 mile State Route between I-280 in San Francisco southward to Interstate 880 in San Jose.  CA 82 is significant due to it being part of the historical surface alignment of US Route 101 and the El Camino Real. The "El Camino Real" was a Spanish Highway in Las Californias and Alta California which connected the 21 Catholic Missions along the coast.  Essentially the route of the El Camino Real was plotted out in the late 1700s from two Spanish survey expeditions.  The Missions were plotted approximately 30 miles apart along the 600 mile route so that they would be a single day journey by horse.  The El Camino Real name fell into disuse after the Mexican Revolution of 1821 but was revived by American highway promoters in the 1890s and 1900s.  Today the El Camino Real is mostly associated...
2 comments
Read more