Bridge Rail Design Approved

WAITSBURG – City council members voted three to one to approve a rail design for the Main Street Bridge replacement on the north end of town. Councilors Kevin House, Marty Dunn, and Deb Callahan voted in favor of approving an open window pattern submitted by engineers Anderson Perry & Associates.

Councilor KC Kuykendall voted in opposition saying he still didn’t understand why he was being forced to approve a rail when the city hasn’t approved an overall bridge design yet.

“At this point, picking the trim around the window before you design the house is OK with me but I talked with FEMA, I talked with State Historic Preservation, and the information submitted by Anderson Perry still doesn’t make sense to me,” Kuykendall said.

At a March 10 public meeting, Anderson Perry engineer Eric Zitterkopf explained that a rail decision was needed soon in order to procure approval from the Washington Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation. The city was given until this week’s council meeting to reach a consensus on the rail design.

All the council members said they hadn’t received much feedback regarding rail design preferences other than the fact that people liked the open windows.

They said the one thing they had all heard strong feedback on, was a preference for sidewalks down both sides of the bridge, rather than just one side, as is currently planned.

City Administrator Randy Hinchliffe said the cost of the additional sidewalk would be about $20,000, which is relatively small in relation to the estimated $1.6 million project price tag. He said the bigger problem was that adding a second sidewalk will throw off the alignment of the bridge with Main Street.

Councilmember Deb Callahan requested the addition of a third light along the bridge, which will be 30 feet longer than the existing bridge.

The final motion, which was approved, included the approval of the open-concept window design rail, the addition of a third light on each side of the bridge, and a request for an add-alternate bid on the addition of a second sidewalk along the bridge.