Money to repair a damaged bridge in Brier is part of the proposed supplemental state construction budget.
Democratic state Rep. Derek Stanford has pushed legislation to include $800,000 for the Scriber Creek Bridge in the capital budget.
Money for the bridge “would go a long way in helping repair a significant piece of the infrastructure in the growing community of Brier,” Stanford said last week.
Support for the bridge approached final approval as the Legislature finished its regular session last week, but he said that the capital budget would have to wait for the special session that starts this week for final passage.
The Scriber Creek Pedestrian Bridge was damaged in the December 2007 flood, Stanford explained.
“Those devastating flood waters a few years back eroded the creek bank,” he said. “In fact, the bank actually took such a battering that two of the four pilings supporting the bridge were exposed.”
Brier City Planner Nicole Gaudette said, “Rebuilding the Scriber Creek Bridge will protect salmon-bearing waters, critical infrastructure, a pedestrian pathway, and the public health.”
“Our City of Brier looks forward to being able to repair damages that the 2007 winter floods caused to the Scriber Creek Bridge and the surrounding area,” Gaudette added, “because this work will ensure stability to the sewer line that the bridge carries preventing future damage to Scriber Creek and its ecosystem.”
Stanford noted that the state’s capital budget “is primarily funded by the sale of bonds, and doesn’t do anything to add to the serious shortfall currently confronting our state’s biennial operating budget.”
The Scriber Creek Pedestrian Bridge not only provides a major trail link in Brier, it also carries a sewer pipe over Scriber Creek, which as Gaudette noted is a salmon-bearing waterway.
Stanford represents the 1st Legislative District, including Brier, Bothell, most of Mountlake Terrace and nearby areas of both Snohomish and King counties.
Evan Smith can be reached at schsmith@frontier.com.
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