South Valley Creek Bridge replacement work slated for July
Hey savvy news reader! Thanks for choosing local.
You are now reading
1 of 3 free articles.
ARLEE — Residents who live on South Valley Creek Road can expect to see long-awaited improvements to their bridge this summer. Work to replace South Valley Creek Bridge is scheduled to begin around July 15 and finishing sometime in November.
Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes Safety of Dams Program Manager Mike Brown said $1 million in bridge funding was obtained in early 2011 through Bureau of Indian Affairs road funding, which he said doles out every year an estimated $22 million for bridge projects on Indian reservations.
Brown said the tribes are currently in the process of selecting a contractor. As the bidding process for the project closed March 1, he expects one should be chosen within the next couple of weeks. Brown explained that work that was intended to start last summer was delayed because the money was not received soon enough to send out bids and secure a contractor.
“The BIA money for roads and bridges can be spent on any public road on a reservation,” Brown said, adding it does not matter if the state or county owns the road. “The money could be spent on Highway 93 if we wanted to, but only with tribal council approval.”
“It’s a tribal project on a county road,” said Lake County Commissioner Paddy Trusler. “It’s a collaboration between the tribes and the county to put a safer bridge in … it would have taken (the county) 20 years to put away enough money to replace the bridge.”
Trusler added that after the bridge is built and inspected, the county will be responsible for its maintenance.
The South Valley Creek Bridge, which was temporarily closed at the end of August 2009, after a March 2008 Montana Department of Transportation inspection of the bridge suggested that it had deteriorated to an unsafe point, has spanned the Jocko River north of Arlee for nearly 100 years. Following the 2008 inspection report, county commissioners decided liability was too high to keep the bridge open, and announced it would be closed at the end of August 2009.
At the time, the closure caused an uproar from area residents who were not only unhappy about the added 10 miles they would need to drive via North Valley Creek Road, a narrow, winding gravel road, to reach Hwy. 93. Several residents were concerned about the amount of time they were notified in concerning the bridge closure and also called into question the need to replace the bridge in the first place.
On Feb. 10, 2012, attorney and South Valley Creek Road resident Tracey Morin sent a letter to Lake County Commissioners calling out the validity of the project, requesting all information regarding the bridge.
“New tribal council members should be asking why Lake County is trying to foist onto the tribe a project that drains valuable, hard-to-come by Tribal resources,” Morin wrote.
She also pointed out in her letter the fact that residents have not had the protection and services of fire and ambulance services for more than two years.
“The South Valley Creek Bridge does not need to be replaced,” Morin said.
“I have not heard a valid reason why this project isn’t in the public’s best interest,” countered Trusler, who said he recently received confirmation through Brown that the tribal council was still 100 percent behind the project.
In March 2009, county officials lowered the gross vehicle weight to 3 tons. The restriction meant that no emergency vehicles or the school bus could use the South Valley Creek Bridge.
In response, Lake County Commissioners requested that MDT take another look at the issue to check if temporary repairs to the bridge would be cost-effective. Just before the expected closure date, MDOT’s Missoula District Administrator Doug Moeller and State Bridge Engineer Kent Barnes sent a letter to the commissioners recommending repairs to keep the bridge open.
According to Trusler in a 2010 Valley Journal article, the county replaced about $42,000 worth of stringers and decking. The MDOT did another inspection of the bridge in April 2010, and a report released two months later confirmed the bridge had an 8-ton load limit, which still wasn’t enough to allow full-size school buses or large emergency vehicles to cross.
“There are emergency vehicles that can go across,” Trusler said, referring to smaller emergency vehicles and fire trucks.
But according to Arlee Volunteer Ambulance Chief Ken Light, that has left his department with limited options for years.
Light said Arlee fire fighters and EMT members have had to respond to calls on South Valley Creek Road by taking a 15-minute or longer detour via North Valley Creek Road.
The 8-ton weight limit restricts their modes of transportation. Light said the main ambulance truck is too heavy as are the fire trucks. This leaves one option, two wild land trucks, which are used to fight grass and wild land fires or protect structures during a house fire. The two trucks are the only vehicles able to cross.
“It’s definitely a problem for us,” Light said. “Even 10 minutes is long if you are having a heart attack.”
However, the wild land trucks, which are essentially pickup trucks, do not hold enough water if there was ever a major fire. This type of fire would require a water tender or water tank, which weighs 15-tons when filled.
“If there was ever a (big) fire up there, the 15-ton water tender, it’s way too heavy,” he said.
Light said calls his department has responded to in the area have been for both fire and ambulance, and every time, they have traveled using North Valley Creek Road.
“We just have to follow what the road people told us, we just go by the sign,” Light said. “It hasn’t killed anybody yet, but the potential exists.
