Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
The Edmundson Bridge project is clear to go ahead after parties involved in the delay signed a memorandum last week. A permit is expected to be issued soon for construction to start June 1.
The delay came late last summer when the Historic Bridge Foundation, based in Austin, Texas, questioned whether the 1916 bridge should be saved.
After a historical review process, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Seattle District, the Historic Bridge Preservation Office and the Washington State Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation signed the memorandum.
The Edmundson Bridge is located on Sand Road near Pullman where an increase in traffic led to the need to widen the 19-foot-wide bridge on the 25-foot-wide road. The roadway serves as an alternate route between Pullman and Moscow.
A county crew will demolish the original 19.5-foot wide span and build abutments for a pre-cast concrete deck.
The county estimates six weeks to build the bridge – with a temporary span put in place for motorists.
“With the safety aspects of that bridge, it needs to get done. Now it will get done,” said Dean Cornelison, assistant county engineer.
While County Public Works Director Mark Storey and his crew have waited, a previously placed order of $107,000 in concrete girders has sat in a lot in Spokane. The girders are to be used on the new bridge.
Since last fall, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Seattle District, investigated the original Luten-arch concrete bridge, according to the requirements of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 (NHPA), which calls for federal agencies to take into account the effects of their work on historic properties.
Properties covered under the NHPA may include archaeological sites, artifacts, historic districts, buildings or other structures. Applicants for permits on these locations may be asked to complete a survey to determine if historic properties exist or not.
The style of the bridge is named after Daniel Luten, one of the nation's most influential bridge engineers of the early 1900s. Luten and his affiliated contracting companies built thousands of his patented designs across the country.
Last July, Whitman County commissioners accepted a $1,816,621 bid for the bridge project from M.A. DeAtley of Clarkston.
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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