When construction crews demolish the Fifth Plain Creek Bridge next week, it will mark something of a milestone for Clark County.
The removal will mean the end of the last county-owned bridge that still stands on wooden supports. The structure will be replaced by a longer, wider concrete span.
But county officials aren’t exactly shedding a tear over the passing of this relic.
“I think it’s more of a reflection of time passing,” said Jean Singer, a project manager with Clark County Public Works. “We have switched building materials.”
The existing span rests on four wooden pilings, a nondescript structure that carries Northeast 88th Street over Fifth Plain Creek just east of Northeast Ward Road. The bridge was rebuilt in 1949, but some elements of it date back to 1933, Singer said. It includes a narrow walkway underneath the roadway originally built for cows to use, she said.
The county decided to replace the bridge for several reasons, Singer said. It’s rated as “structurally deficient” and considered at the end of its useful life, according to the county. Workers also have evaluated the wood supports under the bridge and found signs of rotting, Singer said.
“The thing about rot: You can’t undo it,” Singer said.
The $1.9 million project means 88th Street will be closed at the bridge site until December, when construction is expected to wrap up. On Wednesday, several vehicles approached the work site only to turn around at the dead-end. Singer directed one driver to a nearby detour. The county sent out a public notice before the closure and has worked with the homeowners near the site. But it’s difficult to reach everyone affected, she said.
“It’s hard when the area is rural,” Singer said. “You never know who is going to be passing through.”
As part of the project, crews will use a pipe to temporarily reroute Fifth Plain Creek around the construction site, said county construction engineer David Dolan. The diversion will continue while the new foundation is built. The new bridge, when complete, will use concrete girders to carry the roadway across the creek without touching the water. Instead, the foundations will touch only the banks on each side of the creek.
The new bridge also will be wider than the existing structure to accommodate for the possibility of sidewalks and bike lanes in the future, Singer said.
Vancouver-based Cascade Bridge LLC is the lead contractor on the project.
The Fifth Plain Creek Bridge is the last county-owned bridge on wood supports, but it’s not the only one with wood incorporated into the structure. The covered bridge near the Cedar Creek Grist Mill, for example, has a large wooden cover but the bridge itself is steel.
Once the existing Fifth Plain Creek Bridge is gone, there will be a sizable gap in 88th Street for several weeks. The girders that will form the backbone of the new bridge are expected to arrive around October, Dolan said.
“It’s going to be a nice little bridge,” he said.
