Local bridges earn state deficiency rating

Nine Whitman County bridges were rated as structurally deficient in a Washington State Department of Transportation report released in January. Colfax City Administrator Michael Rizzitiello believes there should have been more than that.

“There is actually more of them that are in bad condition,” he said, specifically noting the south Main Street bridge on Highway 195 at Cooper Street and the narrow Highway 26 bridge across the Palouse River west of the waste water facility.

Rizzitiello said the south Main bridge near Cooper Street was at one time slated for replacement.

He noted the 195 bridge was likely pushed out to fix a bridge elsewhere and never put back on the list. It was among the nine Whitman County bridges rated as structurally deficient.

“The lifespan on those things is really only 100 years,” Rizzitiello said. “As a city, we aren’t Spokane or Seattle, so we don’t have the money laying around to fix a state structure.”

Two of the bridges on the list include the two bridges at the Highway 26 and 195 intersection at the north end of Colfax. Both bridges run over the North Fork of the Palouse River. The one over 195 was built in 1931, and the one over 26 was constructed in 1938. These two bridges have now been moved up on a priority list with WSDOT for reconstruction.

Rizzitiello told the Gazette WSDOT is taking the lead on assisting the city with applying for a federal Transportation Incentives Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grant which will help to replace the two bridges with one. That would eliminate the Y configuration of the intersections and replace it with a T intersection. Rizzitiello noted there would be a possibility for a flashing traffic light there as well.

Rizzitiello called these bridges a high priority for the city.

“Right now, our biggest concern is the 195/26 bridge, but definitely those other ones are on our radar as well,” he said. Rizzitiello also noted the city hopes to reconstruct the Sixth Street bridge near Jennings Elementary School in the near future.

“It’s an old bridge,” he said. “It’s just nearing the end of its useful life.”

The Sixth Street bridge is not listed as structurally deficient with WSDOT.

The 195/26 reconstruction project was actually moved up on the state’s priority list, Rizzitiello told the Colfax City Council on March 21.

“It’s gotten elevated to one of the three WSDOT is submitting for federal TIGER funds,” he told the Gazette. “In the state’s transportation package, it wasn’t even in that.”

Rizzitiello noted that city leaders traveling to Olympia to lobby for this project was one of the things which helped to push it forward. He said start of construction would likely be in late 2017-early 2018.

He added the construction project there will also mean a remodel for the Chevron Corner Store.

“Regardless of what bridge you put in there, you’re going to have some freed up land,” Rizzitiello said. “There won’t be a loss of business, just a remodel. I imagine it will be shifted a little more to the west.”

Other Whitman County bridges listed as structurally deficient include two on Highway 23 at Pleasant Valley Creek and Rock Creek, two more on Highway 26 at Willow Creek near milepost 106 and over the railroad at mile 102.

Other Highway 195 bridges are in the Rosalia area at Pine Creek near mile 63, over the railroad at milepost 62.8, over the John Wayne Trail near milepost 63 and over an abandoned railroad at milepost 65.5.

Rizzitiello said he hopes to see the state stepping up to help with these deficiencies.

“It has been needed for a long time, and we’re definitely supportive of all that is being done,” he said. “Regardless of what happens with the grant, the state needs to get their ducks in a row and get the projects done.”

Whitman County Public Works Director Mark Storey said there are also a number of county bridges which are deteriorating. He said the county “has a whole other list” separate from the state’s list of deteriorating bridges, and that list includes a couple bridges which are structurally deficient and more that are listed as functionally obsolete.

“There are bridges deteriorating every day,” he said. “We have a dedicated crew of people who work on bridges all year long. We’re doing a lot every year.”

The county funds and state funds are separate in terms of who pays for maintenance and takes care of that maintenance, Storey said. He noted though that there is a lack of funding all around.

“We need more money than we can offer,” he said. “We self-fund bridge replacements every year because if we don’t we’re going to have bridges falling down.”

He said the funding is so minimal that bridges get to bad points of deterioration.

“There is definitely a lack of federal funds to replace deficient bridges in the state, county and city,” he said. “You have to have a bridge just about ready to fall down before it can be fixed. The state and federal government are going to have to spend some money on it, otherwise the infrastructure won’t be there.”