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Residents voice concerns about Dalton Mountain Bridge replacement schedule, Herrin Lake Road detour safety

The Dalton Mountain Road Bridge replacement project became a dominant topic of conversation at the March 6 Lincoln Government Day, Lewis and Clark County Public Works Director Eric Griffin fielding a variety of questions and comments following his regular update for the meeting.

The chief concerns included the timeline of the project, which is now in the hands of the Montana Department of Transportation’s off-system bridge program and traffic and safety on Herrin Lakes Road, which will serve as the only route into and out of the Dalton Mountain and Willow Creek areas during the bridge replacement.

Replacement of the Dalton Mountain Road Bridge has been in the works for two-and-a-half years, after it was unexpectedly closed Aug. 3, 2017. An inspection by the Montana Department of Transportation had revealed nine of the bridge’s 30 timber piles were compromised. The bridge re-opened Sept. 14, 2017, limited to a single lane of traffic with a 10-ton weight limit since, following emergency repairs to shore four piles under its eastern side.

That fall the county began the process to apply for Treasure State Endowment Program funding l to help cover the cost of replacing the bridge, which in 2018 was estimated at $1.1 million to $1.2 million. The Montana Legislature approved the TSEP funding during the 2019 session, which pushed the bridge replacement to 2020, at the earliest.

Griffin explained the county received roughly $600,000 for the bridge replacement. The remaining money would have come out of the county’s general fund, so they began looking into the MDT’s off-system bridge program as a way to save county tax-payer dollars. Last fall, the Dalton Bridge project was accepted into the Montana Department of transportation’s off-system bridge program which meant it became a state, rather than a county, project.

“We will take our TSEP dollars, our … $600,000 and give that to the off-system bridge program. The off-systems bridge program will pick up the rest of those dollars,” he said, adding the state will have to go through its own process for developing the project.

“Phase one of the scope would be surveying, environmental research work. There will be some public outreach, some other preliminary items,” he said. “Time frame 2022, possibly 2023, by the time they get all their stuff together and get to construction.”

The idea of waiting two to three more years for a new bridge didn’t sit well with some of the area’s residents, however.

“It was 2022 and you’re talking 2023 now, and it was supposed to be in 2020,” said Robert Christiansen, who was concerned about the continued stability of the bridge.

Griffin said he understands the concerns, and said MDT is inspecting it every six months.

“If they find something they will let us know. We’re continuing to look at it too,” he said. “We’ll do our best job to keep it open and usable for the users of it.”

The continued safety of traffic on Herrin Lakes Road also came up. The replacement project, which will see the old bridge removed, is expected to take between four and six months, leaving the Herrin Lakes road as the only access to the Dalton Mountain and Willow Creek area for both residents and emergency response vehicles.

Kevin Forkan said that will be an issue if the bridge replacement happens to coincide with logging operations related to the Willow Creek Vegetation Project, which is currently the subject of litigation.

“We’re going to have big safety problems if those two projects collide” Forkan said. “That’s something that might need to be addressed before the time comes when you close that bridge.”

Of particular concern is the narrowness of the road around the main lake, which includes two significant blind corners at each end of the lake.

“Right now, if you meet a logging truck on that road, you can’t get by. There’s no way around Herrin Lakes where two vehicles of that magnitude can pass,” Forkan said.

Improvements to the road have included dust control and additional stop and yield signs. Lincoln Fire Chief Zach Muse told Forkan he’s talked to Kevin Horne, the county’s road and bridge supervisor, about those issues.

“He said he was going to take a hard look at it and see if there’s any way they can widen some of the sharp corners, and see what the right-of-way is for the county,” Muse said.

In a similar discussion in 2017, right-of-way issues were noted as one of the challenges to widening the road.

During the discussion, Griffin also addressed a rumor that the county has known about issues with bridge for 15 years.

“I’ll go on record right now,” he said. “It wasn’t deficient 15 years ago. We would have put the weight limits on it.”

In 2017, MDT’s Bridge Management Engineer Amanda Jackson told the BVD they had been inspecting the bridge on three month cycles since early 2016, when planks in the timber pier walls were removed, revealing the extent of the decay in the piles. The county had a plan to repair the bridge in 2017 and was waiting on permitting when the deterioration reached a “tipping point,” something Jackson said can happen quickly once wood piles start to go bad. She said it was unrelated to the July 7, 2017 earthquake that hit the area.

Griffin said the county plans to continue to put pressure on the MDT to get the bridge replacement done as soon as possible and said they may try to bring MDT personnel in charge of the project to a community council or government day meeting, to hear from community members directly.*

*This version of the story corrects just a whole boatload typos that appeared in the print edition.

 

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