USK — With rotting pilings and crumbling concrete, the bridge over the Pend Oreille River 45 miles north of Spokane badly needs to be replaced.
With costs rising and the bridge’s condition deteriorating, Pend Oreille County commissioners and Kalispel tribal leaders have managed to secure $18 million of the $40 million estimated replacement cost. Legislators who represent the northeastern corner of the state are trying to help.
“From what I’ve gathered in comments made by engineers, the bridge could continue to be used for two to three more years with a reduction in the weight limits,” said Sen. Bob Morton, R-Orient.
The current limit is to 40 tons, less than the weight of the logging trucks that regularly use the half-mile span, County Commissioner Ken Oliver said. Heavy commercial trucks are limited to crossing one at a time, and the speed limit has been reduced.
Nearly a third of the wood pilings beneath the bridge, built about 44 years ago, are rotting and the concrete supports and road bed are crumbling. County officials have been planning to replace it for years but say they haven’t been able to get enough support from the state and federal governments.
“We’re doing our best,” said Rep. Joel Kretz, R-Omak. “It clearly needs replaced. … It’s falling apart.”
The county-owned bridge is the “primary transportation route to the outside world for the Kalispels,” said Terry Knapton, business manager for the 400-member tribe. “Without (the bridge), a lot of the goods and services wouldn’t get to the reservation or would have to be brought out through Newport or Ione.”
The nearest alternative crossings for Brenda Erdman, who commutes from Chewelah to work at the tribe’s Camas Center, and others who now use the bridge are 17 and 35 miles away.
“I guess I’d have to swim,” Erdman said, “or get a canoe.”
Cusick School Superintendent Dan Read said the small rural school district couldn’t afford to reroute buses around the bridge but also would be hard hit by the loss of nearly a third of the district’s 292 students who live east of the river and account for about $300,000 in revenue.
“It’s a significant chunk of our budget,” Read said.
Oliver said he was told on a recent trip Olympia that the state is hard-pressed to meet high-priority demands for bigger transportation projects, including state ferry overhauls, replacement of the Alaskan Way viaduct, Evergreen Point floating bridge in Seattle and the north-south freeway in Spokane.
“We’ve been trying to get funding for it for a number of years,” Oliver said. “We’re to the point now where we’re desperate.”
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