Tribes to get $1.2 million to replace South Valley Creek Bridge
Temporary repairs kept bridge open last fall, but still not safe for heavy loads and full school buses
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ARLEE — A $1.2 million emergency fund grant, earmarked for replacement of the South Valley Creek Bridge north of Arlee, is on its way to the Flathead Reservation from the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes Safety of Dams program manager Mike Brown received verbal confirmation last week that the grant was approved, according to tribal spokesman Rob McDonald.
“There’s still work to be done,” McDonald said.
That work includes making sure the grant goes through proper channels and forming an agreement with the county as to how the bridge project will work, he explained.
“This is a county bridge, not a tribal bridge,” McDonald said.
Tribal Council assigned Brown to design a new bridge and apply for a BIA grant to replace the century-old crossing over the Jocko River one year ago, after county officials nearly closed the bridge Aug. 30, 2009. Following a 2008 Montana Department of Transportation inspection report that deemed the bridge unsafe for heavy loads, county commissioners decided liability was too high to keep the bridge open, and announced it would be closed at the end of August 2009.
Estimates for replacing the bridge were as high as $1.2 million — far more than the county’s entire bridge budget. So the commissioners decided to close the bridge until funding became available for a new bridge — a wait they admitted could last for years.
The news prompted an outcry from South Valley Creek residents, who were alarmed that emergency services to the area would be restricted. The closure also would have forced area residents to detour up to 10 miles via North Valley Creek Road, a narrow, winding gravel road, to reach U.S. Highway 93, making the drive to Arlee 30 minutes long for some.
In response to the uproar, Lake County Commissioners requested that MDT take another look at the issue and advise 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.
The bridge was closed temporarily in mid-September of last year, and the county replaced all the stringers and decking, “about $42,000 worth of work,” county commissioner Paddy Trusler said.
MDOT inspected the bridge again in April, and Trusler received the report in June.
“It’s confirmed that it’s an 8-ton load limit,” Trusler said.
Eight tons isn’t enough to allow full-size school buses or large emergency vehicles to cross, but it does restore the bridge’s rating to its pre-2009 numbers, he explained.
“It’s my understanding that if we could get it back to an 8-ton load limit, that the school district would run a (small) bus across it,” Trusler said.
Since completing repairs last fall, the county has been “waiting to see if that (BIA) emergency funding goes through,” Trusler said.
Officially, the money should arrive in about 60 days. Brown’s already designed a new bridge, although Tribal Council has yet to see and approve the plans that will be “higher and wider” than the existing structure, according to McDonald, who wasn’t sure of the design details.
But one way or another, construction will begin in summer 2011.
“Their window to build is from July to September,” McDonald said. “That’s when the bull trout are spawning.”
South Valley Creek residents will have to detour via North Valley Creek Road during construction, he added.
“They’re gonna demolish the old bridge and put this (new) one in its place,” McDonald said.
