[env-trinity] Trinity Journal: Bucktail bridge grant application pursued

[Tom Stokely]

http://www.trinityjournal.com/news/local/article_32220c2a-9b8f-11e4-8cd7-930345f96156.html
Bucktail bridge grant application pursued
By Sally Morris The Trinity Journal | Posted: Wednesday, January 14, 2015 6:15 am
Bucktail Bridge
Supervisors hope to improve recreational access by replacing the Bucktail Bridge over the Trinity River at Browns Mountain Road near Lewiston.
The Trinity County Board of Supervisors last week voted 4-1 in favor of pursuing a Federal Lands Access Program grant of approximately $3.8 million to replace the Bucktail Bridge over the Trinity River at Browns Mountain Road near Lewiston and improve recreational access at the site.
If the county’s grant application is successful, the Trinity River Restoration Program has pledged a local match of $437,186 to the project and the county would contribute an additional $20,201 from its road funds.
Director of Transportation Rick Tippett said the county’s match is not essential, but demonstrates commitment and makes for a stronger application because “they like to see counties with skin in the game and $20,000 for a $3 million project seems small. We’ve been juggling issues there for a long time.”
The Bucktail Bridge is a county-owned structure and if the competitive grant application is successful, the proposed project would replace it to reduce scouring and erosion that has been occurring, secure access to the Bucktail boat ramp on BLM land and minimize the threat to public safety and potential damage to property posed by the existing potential for flooding.
The development of two new public access trails and an expanded parking area near the boat ramp and existing restrooms are also proposed. One trail would be an approximately 0.13-mile long, hard surfaced pathway accessible by disabled people and the other trail would be a mile long, natural surface trail for use by cyclists, equestrians and pedestrians.
The Trinity River Restoration Program staff has worked with county Transportation Department staff to develop plans and engineering specifications, bridge design and environmental studies for the bridge replacement project as well as pledging the suggested 11.47 percent in matching funds for the project.
Tippett explained that although the existing bridge is sound and not at risk of failure, FEMA hydraulic models run in 2012 confirmed it is too low to allow passage of a 100-year event with river flows of 14,910 cubic feet per second when flood waters would be backing up into the Bucktail subdivision.
He said that while the existing bridge does allow passage of the maximum 11,000 cfs Trinity Dam release called for in an extremely wet year by the Trinity River Restoration Record of Decision of 2000, the velocity of high flows has a serious scouring effect causing erosion of the bridge abutments.
The proposal is to replace the bridge with a longer, wider one and a new overflow control structure upstream.
The Trinity River Restoration Program has performed much previous work at the Bucktail Bridge site to accommodate higher restoration flows and improve fish habitat, prompting Sup. Keith Groves and others to question the need to replace the bridge now.
From the audience, Kay Graves of Lewiston wondered why the county should spend anything on it if it was incorrectly designed in the first place by the federal agencies.
“Spending $20,000 or even one penny on it seems inappropriate during a time when our budget is so constricted and you just had workers out on strike,” she said.
In the early 2000s, three other bridges were replaced at Salt Flat, Poker Bar and Treadwell/Biggers Road to allow for higher restoration flows, but at Bucktail the work included raising the approach roadway and installing a bottomless arch culvert in an overflow channel to divert the highest flows away from the bridge.
The site has experienced repeated flooding problems since then with additional repairs and countermeasures performed. Ongoing county maintenance costs at the site were estimated at $35,000 annually.
Sup. Groves had additional questions and asked to delay board action on the grant application for two weeks to allow more time to investigate the issues, but the vote was 4-1 in favor of moving forward with the application as presented.
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