December 6, 2007

Bridge closure means reroutes
Traffic through Biggs will be rerouted west

By RODGER NICHOLS
of The Dalles Chronicle

     Motorists and truckers cruising north or south on Highway 97 will face a 40-mile detour starting Jan. 2.
     That’s when the Sam Hill Memorial Bridge over the Columbia River at Biggs Junction will close completely for the first of two months-long periods to replace the badly-deteriorating bridge decking.
     And, starting Dec. 17, the bridge will have single lane closures from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m., with pilot cars leading vehicles across in turn.
     “Physically, after Jan. 2, there will be no way to get across the bridge,” said Chris Tams, Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) area engineer at an informational open house in Rufus Tuesday.
     During the closure, traffic on Highway 97 will be routed west on Highway 14 and Interstate 84 to cross at The Dalles bridge. The detour will add the better part of an hour to what is now a half-mile trip across the bridge lasting less than a minute.
     The bridge won’t reopen until May 10, 2008 at the earliest, and the Memorial Day weekend at the latest. At that time, the northern half of the bridge decking replacement will be complete, and the bridge will reopen for the summer tourist season.
     The second closure will begin after Labor Day 2008, and reopen sometime in early 2009. Officials avoided giving a specific date for the second reopening, though they said the total closure time is supposed to be 230 days. If that figure is correct, it would put the second reopening at Jan. 8, 2009.
     Tams estimated the closures will increase traffic over The Dalles bridge by “roughly 30 percent.”
     That may be light, given that current traffic figures indicate the Biggs Bridge averages 5,100 trips per day — 26 percent of them by trucks — and The Dalles Bridge averages 5,400 trips per day.
     The biggest hardship may fall on minimum-wage workers who live in one state and work in another. The high cost of gas digs a big hole in the weekly paycheck when an 80-mile daily commute is added. An estimated 100 people who work at restaurants, hotels and gas stations in Biggs Junction are among those affected.      WSDOT is suggesting carpooling and points inquiries towards the website operated by Carpool Match Northwest (www.carpoolmatchnw.org.).
     According to 2000 census figures, 15 percent of the people in Sherman County, 280 people and 17 percent of the people in Klickitat County, 3,236 people are at or below the federal poverty level. It is not known how many of them currently commute across the bridge to work.
     The cost of the $18 million project will be split evenly between Oregon and Washington. Both states will largely support their contributions with federal bridge replacement funds.
     WSDOT is managing the project because the states alternate bridge management up and down the river; the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) manages The Dalles Bridge.
     The project had originally been scheduled for 2010, but the roadway surface began to deteriorate faster than expected. In 2002, temporary repairs were made, and weight restrictions began March 27, 2006.
     Current weight restrictions limit the use of the bridge to vehicles weighing less than 40 tons, and a maximum of 8.5 tons per axle. Weight restrictions will be removed when the bridge reopens for the the summer of 2008.
     “Originally we were slated to close in September, but at a meeting with the contractors, they said it wasn’t enough time to prepare from the time the bids closed to the time work was scheduled to start,” said Tams at Tuesday’s meeting. “The split schedule will allow them enough time to prepare.”
     In addition to replacing the roadway, Tams said crews will replace some pins in the joints and add additional cross-bracing. The existing shoulder curbing will be replaced with two-foot shoulders on both sides of the bridge, and the railings will be replaced.
     The project’s website (http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/Projects/US97/BiggsBridge/) notes the change “will provide motorists with a wider driving surface that will allow traffic to drive around stalls and minor collisions more easily.”
     Mowat Construction Company of Woodinville, Wash. was awarded the bid.
Denise Sandborn, project superintendent with Mowat, said approximately 20 people will work two 10-hour shifts six days a week. “If that doesn’t work, we’ll go to six 12s,” she said.
     She said the company, which is a union shop, was hiring locally.
     “So far everybody we’ve hired has come by and signed up,” Sandborn said. “We have two young men from Maryhill that used to belong to the union. I told them, ‘If you pay your back union dues, we’ll hire you.’”
     Her office is located at the entrance to Maryhill Park.
     There are several local contractors. Hood River Sand and Gravel is providing all the concrete, Coburn Electric will replace the luminaires and Ram Hydraulics of Dallesport will supply hydraulic hose.
     “We try and get a good reputation because everybody hates us because we’re closing the bridge, “ Sandborn said.
     WSDOT’s Tams said once the repairs are done, it would extend the life of the bridge by 60 years.
     “It may be painful for a while,” he said, “but when it’s done, everybody will be happy not to see us again for a long time.”