County weighing fixes for Cranberry Road Bridge

No timeline set for reopening, more information due in the next week

By Dan Hammock • July 13, 2018 9:30 am
PHOTO COURTESY GRAYS HARBOR COUNTY PUBLIC WORKS Looking across the Cranberry Road Bridge in Grayland you can see the steel plate covering a large hole on that side of the bridge. The county is still mulling temporary fixes to reopen the bridge but no timeline has yet been set.
PHOTO COURTESY GRAYS HARBOR COUNTY PUBLIC WORKS Looking across the Cranberry Road Bridge in Grayland you can see the steel plate covering a large hole on that side of the bridge. The county is still mulling temporary fixes to reopen the bridge but no timeline has yet been set.

There is still no timeline for repair on the Cranberry Road Bridge in Grayland, according to county engineer Rob Wilson.

The bridge has been closed since a hole was discovered on its north end June 29. The bridge is at the intersection of Schmid Road, east of the post office.

“Our on-call bridge engineer is working on a design for a temporary fix that will handle legal loads,” said Wilson. “We are hoping to send out a request for bids for the repair to contractors the week of July 23. A timeline for when the bridge will be reopened will be hard to determine until we get a contractor on board.”

Traffic impacts can vary depending on agriculture and logging activity.

“The average daily traffic is around 400 cars, which is pretty low,” said Wilson. “We didn’t get a truck count so I can’t tell you what percentage … is commercial/agriculture, but I’m assuming it sees some truck traffic during cranberry harvest time and whenever they are logging up on the hill.”

Grange Road about a mile south on Cranberry Road will take detouring vehicles west to State Route 105, bypassing the bridge.

Photos of the bridge provided by the county show the damage. One shows the bridge closed and the steel plate over the hole; one shows the hole in the road that developed due to the loss of material behind the abutment; and one is a look from under the bridge showing the loss of material and how it has compromised the timber sills that support the bridge slabs.

As for temporary fixes, there are some in mind but nothing had been decided as of July 11.

“We have been looking at driving piles of some sort and using those to support the bridge,” said Wilson. “That’s all I can tell you at this time. There are some utilities in the area that may change the approach.” He said more information will become available in the next week or so.