Rediscovering home: The story behind the repair work at Nine Mile Bridge

The bulldozers pushed scrapers until full of rock and dirt. The material was then hauled off to be used for fill on other sections of the new Interstate 90.

My five-year-old self watched from a fence post as the heavy equipment of many kids’ dreams cut away at the earth until the highway reached down close enough for a bridge to be built across Cedar Creek.   

The interstate took one of our pastures. I recall dad literally using a big saw to cut the beams that held our old barn together. He cut away a section of the barn that would have encroached upon the highway right-of-way and pulled it into the barnyard with the tractor. He put boards on the exposed end of the barn, and I grew up with the reduced barn as both place of work and fun. My friends and I built tunnels in the loose hay we piled into the barn. But tamping the hay as a youngster when it reached up to my waist was not so much fun. 

Finally to the point of all this: As do many of my county colleagues, I make many trips down the interstate to Missoula and Spokane and beyond. 

The bridge repair at Nine Mile Hill seems to have taken a long time. We have all become used to the 35 mph speed limit for the two-way traffic on the westbound bridge as the eastbound bridge is repaired.   

However, the advent of the stoplights, pilot cars and, most of all, the 2 to 4 mph creep across the bridge got my attention: “What the heck is going on?”  

My language may have been a bit more colorful. 

Well, Charity Burns, spokesperson for the Montana Department of Transportation, tells me that the two bridges are connected together. The vibration on one side causes vibration on the other.  

Crews had started laying the deck on the eastbound side and the vibration from the traffic, particularly the big rigs, could interfere with it setting up properly. Thus, the creep across the bridge.   

Interestingly, the bridge just to the west of the Nine Mile Bridge is also undergoing repairs, though you might not see the workers. Crews are underneath, replacing the bearings under the westbound bridge. The bearings are set between the bridge piers and the girders, and allow the bridge to flex, thereby lessening the stress on the structure.   

The bridge is actually jacked up while the bearings are replaced, but Burns assured me all is safe for travelers and crews. 

The department hopes to have the Nine Mile Bridge done by the end of the month or maybe sooner. Perhaps it will be done by the time you read this. 

Finally, you might remember my puzzlement over whether crews were rolling toilet paper over the cracks in the highway after sealing them with tar.   

It is not technically toilet paper, but blotter. Blotter is a thin absorbent paper originally used to blot up the ink on a quill pen before writing, say, a letter. But, guess what, the Federal Highway Administration Manual of Practice says that toilet paper is often used as blotter.  

Burns explained the paper is used to keep the tar off vehicles. We are all appreciative of that. 

So, mystery solved – while it is not Charmin, it might well pass as Department of Corrections toilet paper.