Trout Creek bridge open for use

Danielle Switalski

The new Trout Creek bridge opened two weeks ago and is ready for vehicular traffic.

The new bridge, which connects Trout Creek with Martin Creek, went under construction this past October. The Sanders County Commissioners began initial discussions to redo the bridge in Spring, and they quickly made the decision that the deteriorating bridge needed to be replaced.

Funding for the new bridge came out of the county’s west end bridge fund, said County Commissioner Tony Cox, and cost approximately $500,000 to build. The old structure, which was made out of wood, was replaced with cement.

“It was still driveable, but it was deteriorating to a point that it was getting worse quickly, the back walls were braking loose and gravel spilling out,” said Cox.

The new bridge is longer and wider and designed to better handle two-way traffic and easily withstand a flood, which the old bridge was not capable of because drift wood would occassionaly get stuck and freeze behind the bridge piers holding it up. The county would then have to call in excavators to remove the drift wood. The new bridge is free standing and 50 feet higher than the old bridge.

“The old one was a wood structure and the new one is pre-stressed concrete, made to the new highway loading standards and can withstand a lot more loads, it’s bigger and longer,” said Pat Haffner, the bridge contractor.

The bridge was built to last the next 70 to 100 years.

Haffner said construction lasted for about 50 days and there was a detour provided to send traffic around the bridge while it was being built. The bridge opened on Friday, November 27, and Cox said residents seem happy that the bridge is open and no longer have to take the detour route.

“Everyone I’ve talked to is happy, the detour they had to use before was very inconvenient so everyone is happy about being able to use the new bridge,” said Haffner.