Area bridges up to par

By ALEX STRICKLAND / Bigfork Eagle

The two main bridges in the Bigfork area are considered adequate, according to a Montana Department of Transportation spokesperson, and are inspected on a regular, two-year rotation.

In the wake of the Aug. 1, 2007 bridge collapse on I-35 in Minneapolis, MSNBC.com launched a wide-ranging inquiry into the health of bridges around the country and released a comprehensive list of bridges and their condition in each of the 50 states.

That list, which is compiled from each state's DOT databases, shows structure condition ratings, inspection dates and other information for every bridge in the state, no matter how minor.

The two main bridges in the Bigfork area — Sportsman's Bridge over the Flathead River on Highway 82 and the bridge over the mouth of Bigfork Bay on Highway 35 — were both found to be adequate for their current needs.

Charity Watt-Levis, a MDT spokesperson, said the Highway 35 bridge was last inspected August 15 of last year and Sportsman's Bridge was looked at the next day. Both bridges are currently on a two-year inspection cycle, she said. Some bridges are looked at in a four-year rotation.

Sportsman's Bridge is classified as "functionally obsolete," she said, which means the bridge isn't built to current design standards or built to current transportation demands.

It could also indicate that the bridge is too narrow for current traffic load. What it doesn't mean, Watt-Levis said, is that the bridge is in any danger.

Sportsman's Bridge, which is the site of fairly regular car accidents, is considered a narrow bridge even though it technically matches the width of the road, she said.

For the bridge to be widened, then, it would need to be part of a larger project that would widen Highway 82, something currently not in MDT's five-year plan.

"The bridge is on our radar though," she said, adding that projects are constantly moving on and off the five-year queue.

About 5,000 vehicles per day travel over Sportsman's bridge, according to MDT.

The bridge over Bigfork Bay, however, is not considered deficient as the road width also matches the deck width for that structure.

The Highway 35 bridge sees about 8,600 vehicles per day by MDT's count.

Watt-Levis said an environmental assessment that is nearly complete includes that bridge as part of a larger-scale project. Like Sportsman's Bridge, any widening to the Bigfork Bay span would have to be connected to a widening of Highway 35.

"Once that study is done it moves a step closer in a long process," she said.

Watt-Levis said MDT's bridge department is excellent and that close tabs are kept on spans large and small across the state.

"We have people checking bridges, and people who check the people checking the bridges," she said.