MDT Open House provides information on Dalton Mountain Road Bridge replacement

The design for a new Dalton Mountain Road Bridge seemed to be popular with locals who use the bridge on a regular basis, but residents of the area still harbor doubts about when the old bridge, which is down to just one lane and now an eight-ton weight limit, will actually be replaced.

The Dalton Mountain Road Bridge open house hosted by the Montana Department of Transportation Nov. 18 provided some insight into the state's plans for the bridge replacement, The processes and requirements MDT has to abide by, the projected budget and the replacement timeframe.

After a series of changing timeframes for when a new bridge will be built, a main concern among residents who live south of the bridge seemed to be if it would actually be replaced in 2023, which is about four years later than the first projections by the county after the failing piles temporarily closed the bridge in 2017.

Area resident Forest Farris likes the design of the new bridge- a single span, pony-truss bridge without any piles or piers in the river - but said they just want it done.

'I kind of like the idea of the clear span" he said. "Originally they were kind of talking about a double span, and having to do a lot of work in the river, which was going to push it out a lot farther and you've still got the problem of having an obstruction in the river, so a clear span is the way to go."

The new bridge is expected to cost $3.48 million, with construction expected take about five months.

Ron Zarr, who lives next to Farris, said he thinks people out in their area don't really understand why it's taking so long, and they're concerned about how long it's taking,

"That bridge, if we get a bad winter or a bad spring and we get a ton of water coming down and hitting that bridge..." Farris said. "We had a couple good sized trees hit that about three years ago, when we had the big runoff. They need to get that fixed and it was supposed to be fixed "

"A long time ago," Zarr added.

Recent damage to two of the piles that were reinforced in 2017 and allowed the bridge to re-open as a one lane added another wrinkle to concerns about the bridge. The damage believed to be the result of overweight loads using the bridge and hours before the meeting, Lewis and Clark County Engineer Dan Karlin, in discussions with local emergency responders, made the decision to reduce the weight limit of the bridge from 10-tons to eight tons.

Karlin said it's a precaution to help ensure the bridge isn't overloaded. He said the county can post the limit at or below the MDTs load rating, and they notified the state of the decision to lower it.

"Ten tons seems to be kind of at the limit where people kind of say 'I'm close, but i'm gonna go,'" he said. "Eight tons, with the two piles that were damaged, it's just a little bit safer."

Although there are still plans to add additional steel re-enforcement casings to the two fiber glass-reinforced piles that were damaged, Karlin said it's unclear when that may happen, and it may have to wait until warmer spring weather.

"Weather is really hard," Karlin said. "We're trying to figure out a way to get the grout to cure. If it's below 40 (degrees) the grout doesn't cure, so we have to figure out a way to heat that somehow. It's really hard not being able to tent it. You can't tent something that's got an opening on the top. We're working on a solution."

Zarr said residents in the area have taken to keeping an eye on the bridge to make sure no overweight loads cross it.

Randy Boysen, the MDT project manager for the bridge design, talked to members of the public who came to the meeting and said they had a pretty good turnout, with generally positive responses to the options they're looking at for the bridge replacement. He seemed to appreciate the frustration people feel, but said many were understanding.

"Everybody of course would like a bridge that's fully open. We tell them we're doing our best and we have a process to go through to meet the requirements of the funding," he said.

He said the planned single-span bridge design is a good one, but there are a lot of environmental requirements MDT has to work through, including concerns about threatened and endangered species like bull trout and county flood plain requirements

"None of its insurmountable, just permits and processes," he said.

Boysen said the design goal is for a 2023 replacement, but admitted there is some uncertainty due to possible changes in their funding picture.

"They don't tell us that far out. We generally know how much funding we're going to get, but they don't tell us that far out what it's specifically going for," he said.

Zarr, who serves on the Upper Blackfoot Community Council as vice chair and has a good understanding of the reasons for the delays, said he's still scared there the replacement date might get pushed back again, due in part to the foot note on some of the open house information boards that said 'Funding Dependent."

"I'm not holding my breath" said Farris, who believes a higher priority project in need of funding will pop up before 2023, joking that maybe his grandkids will see the new bridge built.

When it was clear the bridge would need to be replaced, Lewis and Clark County began planning for a new bridge and submitted an application for a $600,000 Treasure State Endowment Program grant, which was approved in 2019. Initial projections for the cost of the county to replace the bridge were between $1.1 million and $1.25 million , with work expected to get underway in 2020. However, that date was pushed back after MDT agreed to add the bridge to their off-system bridge progam in 2019, a move to save taxpayer money. That fall the expected replacement was anticipated for 2021 at the earliest. The following year, the expected replacement date was pushed back again to 2022, and finally to 2023.