Author photo

By Garth Meyer
Whitman County Gazette 

Combine collapses bridge

 

August 20, 2020

Maybe the wheat was too heavy for a bridge on Crow Road?

OAKESDALE – On Crow Road, Friday, Aug. 14, a 40,000 pound combine and 7,000-pound header came around a corner and entered a low bridge. Partway across, the wood cracked and split and the combine's front wheels dropped toward the creek below.

"We broke a bridge, beyond repair," said Mark Storey, Public Works director.

On Saturday morning, a county bridge crew and commercial tow-truck freed the combine from the 1950/60s era span, known as the Trestle Creek Bridge. The crew then dismantled the bridge, putting up "Bridge Out" signs.

The half-mile Crow Road remains temporarily closed.

The crew pulled the combine out by laying rock in under the failed bridge in intervals to support the combine's wheels, lifting it higher each time, until it could be fully towed out.

An alternate route for Crow Road exists ¼-mile away on Trestle Creek Road, with no bridge.

Crow Road was the subject of a proposed road vacation in 2012 – meaning the county would relinquish the road to the land and not maintain it any further.

"I'd probably advise not replacing the bridge," said Mark Storey, Public Works director – estimating it would cost $150,000-$200,000 – instead focusing on the alternate route and considering vacating the half-mile long Crow Road.

If the bridge is not replaced, and the road not vacated, the county would keep signs up and lay out a pile of rocks at each end of the bridge.

Author Bio

Garth Meyer, Former reporter

Author photo

Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.

 

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