Board to vote on bridge’s fate

The Idaho Board of Transportation will meet in Boise today to vote on whether to award a $38 million bid for a reconstruction of the Clearwater Memorial Bridge in Lewiston.

The board will decide on a $38.2 million bid from Wadsworth Brothers Construction Co., of Draper, Utah. The only other bid was from Max J. Kuny Co. of Spokane for $54.8 million.

The Wadsworth bid is about $4 million over the engineers’ bid of $34.3 million.

In a justification for the Wadsworth bid, Idaho Transportation Department District 2 engineer Doral J. Hoff wrote that the engineer’s estimate for the project’s lump sum was $9 million, Hoff said, and the low bidder had a cost difference of $13.2 million.

The steel bridge cost is “difficult to estimate because the work type is not typical in Idaho because of the required barge work,” he added.

The project “will improve the load rating of the bridge,” Hoff wrote, “and improve the flow of commerce. The project will place a wider superstructure on the bridge which will make the highway safer for motorists and pedestrians.”

Curtis Arnzen, lead engineer for this project, said no construction dates have definitely been set but it is likely work on the bridge will begin in September. Construction is expected to last about a year and a half, and one half of the bridge will be replaced at a time.

“The new bridge proposal is to replace the superstructure,” of the Clearwater Memorial Bridge, Arnzen said. “The old bridge has a very narrow shoulder … and it’s not good for bicyclists or pedestrian traffic and not a lot of room for traffic to flow. It’s functionally obsolete.”

Arnzen also said the current bridge does not have a modern load rating so certain heavy loads cannot cross the bridge without tearing down their equipment.

“Regular interstate trucks can travel without a permit but big companies need a permit for an oversize load to travel. So it does restrict commerce with some bigger loads,” he said.

If the transportation board approves the bid, the work will involve keeping all the piers going into the water in place and placing riprap around them. A new concrete cap will be placed on top of the piers that is 8 feet wider on each side than the current lane. That will allow for a 6-foot shoulder on each side of the traffic lanes that will better accommodate pedestrian and bicycle traffic, Arnzen said.

Traffic will be allowed over the bridge while construction is ongoing, although it will be restricted to half of the current lanes.

“Our plan is to seek a permit through (the Washington Department of Transportation)” to allow more traffic to detour over the Red Wolf Bridge on the Washington side, he said.

“It will not be required but it will be optional and let traffic know, if you’re traveling through the area you might want to use the Red Wolf Bridge, depending on traffic flow,” Arnzen said. “So that is part of our plan.”

If the board approves the plan today, Arnzen said it will probably take a month or two for a contract to be finalized. The department plans to allow for a large window to begin work, starting with this April and extending to next year.

“We’re giving a lot of flexibility to that. We were hoping that would help our bid out and we would get competitive bids,” Arnzen said. “It takes a lot of time to procure the materials. To order steel girders takes a long time, especially with the supply issues.”

Hedberg may be contacted at khedberg@lmtribune.com.