Repairs To Close Fairfax Bridge

Some visitors to Mount Rainier National Park will have to choose another route when the wooden-decked Carbon River Bridge on Washington 165 is closed daily this summer for repair work.

Also known as the Fairfax Bridge, the 73-year-old structure on the Carbon River Gorge about five miles south of Carbonado in southeast Pierce County is starting to deteriorate, said a Department of Transportation official.

“We want to basically rehabilitate parts of the bridge before it gets to the point it’s ready to collapse,” said Mike Morishige, construction project engineer for the department.

Initial work will begin this spring but most of the construction will be done in summer months, shutting down the bridge from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day from June 13 to Aug. 27.

The road is the only link to home for about 30 families, said a transportation department official. A detour will be opened for residents to use.

The bridge’s distinctive architecture - it is built in three pieces amid a steel arch - has earned it places on the National Register of Historical Places and the Historical American Engineering Record.