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El Dorado County officials celebrated the completion of the new Mosquito Road Bridge with a ribbon-cutting ceremony Friday, a day before the long-awaited crossing is scheduled to open to traffic Saturday morning.
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The two-lane bridge crosses the South Fork of the American River and connects the Placerville area with the Mosquito and Swansboro communities. More than 125 people attended Friday’s ceremony, according to the county.
El Dorado County Board of Supervisors Chair Brooke Laine, 3rd District Supervisor Brian Veerkamp and Deputy Director of Engineering Aradhana Kochar cut the ribbon. An El Dorado County fire engine also crossed the bridge as part of the ceremony.
The new bridge is about 1,200 feet long, around 1,060 feet longer than the previous timber suspension bridge. That’s because the new bridge follows a new alignment across the canyon, replacing the 140-foot, one-lane bridge and its steep, hairpin-curved approaches, according to El Dorado County’s 2016 feasibility study.
The opening concludes a project over 30 years in the making, according to
The project has faced ballooning costs since early county estimates put the cost of replacing the bridge at $5 million to $35 million, far below the more than $104 million projected cost in the county’s .
The bridge, which was the county’s most expensive capital improvement project in 2026, was funded almost entirely through the Highway Bridge Program, a federal grant program administered by Caltrans.
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The new bridge’s roadway sits about 400 feet above the South Fork of the American River. Its height and remote location required unusual construction techniques to extend the bridge from both sides of the canyon.
El Dorado County supervisors awarded the construction contract to Shimmick Construction Co. in May 2022. The project also included realigning portions of Mosquito Road and building new approaches to the bridge.
The original Mosquito Road crossing was as a single-span suspension bridge that became known as the Swinging Bridge. It was replaced by a single-lane timber bridge in 1939 using the original foundations and has been reconstructed several times since then.
County officials had said the old crossing’s narrow roadway, steep approaches and sharp turns limited access for emergency vehicles serving the Mosquito and Swansboro communities.
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The old bridge will be reserved for bicycle and pedestrian use.