DOT head presents Heron bridge process

A bridge at Heron, which spans the Clark Fork River and connects the town to Highway 200, most likely had about 20 years of life when it was erected.

Jim Lynch, director of Montana Department of Transportation, told residents at a community meeting in the Heron Community Center Thursday evening that the bridge they use daily is quite possibly over 70 years old.

And the bridge will need to be replaced.

Lynch traveled to Heron at the request of Sen. Jim Elliott (D-Trout Creek) where he discussed the history and use of the current bridge, the process of building a new bridge, and how to safely use the current bridge. Heron residents filled the chairs, showing how important the bridge is to the community and how concerned they are about its future.

Lynch said infrastructure safety is a big issue he has tried to tackle as DOT director. Bridge safety became a major issue across the country after a bridge supporting an interstate highway in Minneapolis collapsed in 2007. The bridge that failed in 2007 was a steel deck truss bridge, as is the Heron Bridge, and it had been carrying far more weight than it was originally designed to, said Lynch.

He said the bridge in Minneapolis was not unlike many bridges that have the capacity to carry more weight than they were originally designed. He said the bridge would have continued to do its job if it were not for a calculation error in a gusset plate that failed after construction on the bridge greatly increased the weight it carried.

After the disaster in Minneapolis, Lynch received a call from Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer requesting that the DOT director have all steel deck truss bridges in Montana inspected immediately. Lynch said they had them all inspected in a weekend and all passed inspection. The following Monday, the federal Department of Transportation mandated that all states have their steel deck truss bridges inspected and Montana was ahead of the curve.

Lynch said the Heron Bridge passed inspection and does not have the same problems as the bridge in Minneapolis, but it does need to be replaced. The two main reasons the bridge should be replaced are that it has strict weight restrictions for safety and that it is considered “functionally obsolete,” said Lynch.

The term “functionally obsolete” is one used by the DOT, which refers to the current functionality of the bridge. One reason the bridge at Heron is functionally obsolete is because it is considered a one-lane bridge. The weight restrictions on the bridge limits the loads that vehicles can carry across the bridge in relation to the number of axles and length of a vehicle's wheel base. Lynch said that no amount of repairs can be done to the current bridge to increase the load restrictions, only to improve the surface of the bridge.

The weight restrictions can impact some of the daily and most fundamental needs for transportation, including business delivery, school buses and emergency vehicles. The Heron school buses are under the weight maximum for their axles and wheel base, but concerns were brought forth about the town's firefighting vehicles. Also, questions were raised about delivery trucks. Some at the meeting were worried trucks that exceed the weight restrictions have been using the bridge anyway.

Lynch discussed what the community of Heron and Sanders County can do to safely use the bridge until a new one is built, turning in haulers who violate the load restrictions by calling DOT. He also said DOT will calculate Heron's emergency vehicles so they will know whether or not they are safe to use the bridge. Lynch said the people of Heron just have to be patient because the process of building a bridge is long and drawn out and typically takes four to six years before construction can begin, if everything goes smoothly.

Sanders County Commissioner Hank Laws - who was also at the meeting to answer questions and hear concerns - said the county has put in a request to Sen. Max Baucus for a $250,000 grant to study the Heron Bridge, where a new one should go, and how they might go about designing a new bridge. Laws said the issue of funding is one of the main things keeping the process from moving faster but he said the state has put it as one of their top priorities.

Laws said the county does not have the money to take on a major project like building a new bridge but he hopes they can get some state or federal funding. He said in the meantime they will get by with the current bridge just as they have been.

“We're going to rehabilitate it the best we can and get by with it as long as we can,” Laws said. “As long as people follow the weight restrictions, there's nothing wrong with the bridge.”

Laws said the county will have some maintenance repair done to the bridge soon.

Lynch gave the people in attendance some history of himself, telling them about his experience - 30 years in construction - and about his appointment to director of the Department of Transportation in 2005 by Schweitzer. Lynch said he approaches his job as the head of the DOT just as he approached his job as a contractor. He prefers dealing “face-to-face.”

“I love coming into public meetings,” Lynch said. “I've come into some heated ones, and that's OK.”

The atmosphere at Heron Thursday was not heated, but the residents voiced many questions and comments about their bridge. If the bridge was out of service, Heron residents would have to travel by back roads west to Clark Fork, Idaho, or east to Noxon to cross the river.

Lynch said he believes that people should be able to give their input and have a say as to what happens in their communities, rather than having the state come in and tell them how things are going to be. He said it's policy to have long periods of public comment and that's why the initial stages of building a bridge take so long.

“You can see why it takes so long,” Lynch said, “just by hearing all the comments and questions people had tonight.”

Lynch said the initial stages the DOT is in for planning a new bridge include coming up with possible designs, determining how they will seek funding and exploring options of where the new bridge should be built. Lynch and Laws said these are the ideas the community will help to decide during the public comment sessions.

Other political figures in attendance at the meeting Thursday were Commissioner Carol Brooker and Rep. Pat Ingraham (R-Thompson Falls).