ARLINGTON — The old wooden railroad trestle spans a calm bend in the North Fork Stillaguamish River. Fishermen sit on the banks in the shade of the bridge and dip their lines in the cool water.
But during flood season, massive logs pile up at the base.
Snohomish County recently spent $437,000 replacing one of the two wooden piers that support the Cicero pedestrian bridge. The other pier was “hanging on by a thread” when the county replaced it in 1995, said Marc Krandel, Snohomish County Parks and Recreation planning supervisor.
For more than a decade, the bridge has been off-limits to pedestrians. However, in the next five or six years, the county plans to replace the wood-planked surface of the bridge and incorporate it into the 27-mile Whitehorse Trail that will stretch from Arlington to Darrington along the old Burlington Northern rail line.
Some people who live near the bridge, seven miles east of Arlington on Highway 530, say the repairs are a waste of taxpayers’ money if the logjam isn’t removed.
“Logs will cause that bridge to collapse,” said Philip James, a retired teacher who can see the bridge from his yard. “The tax money spent on that bridge will all go for naught.”
Krandel doesn’t think the logs pose any threat to the bridge. The wooden piers were replaced with stronger, concrete piers that should be able to handle the battering of logs for 40 to 50 years, he said.
“Those bridges were 100 years old and the piers were made out of wood,” he said. “So that tells its own story.”
A worker drowned near the bridge several years ago. He was repairing damage to the trestle caused by battering logs when the current carried him downstream.
James remembers the man’s family walking the banks of the river for several days afterward looking for his body. He fears that unless the county does something about the logs, others will drown.
“When the high water gets here, it’s too late and too dangerous,” he said, standing at the edge of the river, looking at the logs piled against the bridge. “Now it’s a cup of tea to knock out a couple of logs. It just makes sense.”
In actuality, it’s not that easy, Krandel said. Salmon like to hide in the roots of trees toppled in rivers.
A couple of weeks ago, the Nature Conservancy dropped 26 logs from a helicopter into the Stillaguamish, near Stanwood, in an effort to create salmon habitat.
“Moving logjams takes permits that you can sometimes get and sometimes not get,” Krandel said. “These days, doing anything in the river is not easy because of endangered species.”
Snohomish County bought the Cicero trestle, along with several other trestles and 27 miles of rail line, in 1993. The county has always planned to turn the railway into the Whitehorse Trail. But the project was put on hold in order to focus on the Centennial Trail, which bisects Snohomish County, north to south.
Currently, eight miles of the Whitehorse Trail, closest to Darrington, are open. The county plans to begin work on the section of the trail that intersects the Centennial Trail in Arlington next year, Krandel said.
Reporter Kaitlin Manry: 425-339-3292 or kmanry@heraldnet.com.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
