County to buy temporary bridge

Garth Meyer, Gazette Reporter | Feb 24, 20160

Whitman County Public Works Director Mark Storey has made the call to buy a modular bridge for use in the county.

The estimated $50,000 item, out for bids now, calls for a two-piece steel structure with a wood-plank driving surface. The device, with its two halves bolted together, is used as a temporary bridge in bridge repair and/or replacement projects, three of which will take place this summer. Edmundson Bridge on Sand Road, the Glen Miller Bridge on McNeilly Road, and the Steptoe Creek Bridge on Steptoe Canyon Road are on the work list.

On previous bridge replacement projects, the county installed a temporary detour, usually a large culvert with a gravel surface over the top.

Storey told the Gazette in January that these detours are frowned upon by the Department of Fish and Wildlife, and it has become harder to get a permit for their use.

The modular bridge could save the Public Works department money over time for use with the county's 340 bridges and other structures, such as large twin-water pipes and square box culverts.

The item went into the Public Works budget last year – approved by county commissioners – after Storey and his staff considered it for three years.

For Edmundson Bridge on Sand Road, an increase in traffic has led to the need to widen the 19-foot-wide bridge on the 25-foot-wide road. The roadway serves as an alternate route between Pullman and Moscow. The concrete arch bridge was built in the early 1900s.

The estimated two-month project would be built by a county crew, with work to be done this year or next, depending on permitting and other factors.

“Everything can change, it's February,” Storey said.

The second bridge project slated for this year, near the bottom of Steptoe Canyon Road, will be funded by the Washington Salmon Recovery Funding Board. An estimated $300,000 will be spent to build a new 30-foot bridge to replace a six-foot culvert.

The culvert pipe blocks two miles of salmon and steelhead habitat upstream from the Snake River.

Work will be completed by a Whitman County construction crew as well as labor from Palouse Conservation District.

The third bridge to be replaced, at McNeilly Road, will be an estimated $100,000 small span which accesses farm ground.