Highway 75 bridge construction starts
By PETER BOLTZ
Express Staff Writer
Wide swaths of cleared snow and dirt gave valley drivers a
good idea of what’s coming with the new Big Wood River bridge at
Greenhorn Gulch.
Bulldozers did the clearing at the end of last week, and
Monday dump trucks began dumping riprap into the river.
Tom Logan, Idaho Transportation Department (ITD)
supervisor of the project, said the riprap will be removed after the
contractor, Nelson Construction, installs the footing for the new bridge.
That phase of the construction, he said, should be done by
today. Once the bridge support is in, workers will bring in a pile driver
to sink supports into both sides of the river.
Wayne Hamilton, an ITD inspector at the site, said the
riprap will be used as a "building pier" so heavy equipment can
install a pad for a bridge support.
Construction crews will hammer a form 13 feet into the
river bottom to bedrock, Hamilton said, and then the rock inside the form
will be scooped out.
Concrete will then be poured into the form to make the
footing.
The construction, part of the project from Alturas Drive
to Timber Way, will replace the two-lane bridge built in 1934 with a
three-lane bridge.
The bridge replacement work will be followed by
construction of a diversion at East Fork Road to allow normal traffic flow
while a bicycle tunnel is built to connect East Fork with the Golden Eagle
II subdivision.
Hamilton said the entire project, including construction
of the bridge, will be completed by August 2002.
