In brief: Bridge section draws ‘looky-loos’

A key chunk of the new Tacoma Narrows Bridge, ruled too heavy to travel across state roads last week, has become a tourist attraction at the state line weigh station where it has been stranded 11 days.

“We had a lot of looky-loos over the weekend, people stopping by to take pictures of it,” said Nicholas Hopper, spokesman for the State Patrol’s commercial vehicle division.

Employees at the Interstate 90 weigh station just west of Idaho stopped the load March 17 after it tipped the scales at 330,000 pounds. That’s 13,000 pounds more than the load and trailer’s permit allows.

The Washington Department of Transportation reports Texas-based Big Boat Movers, the company hauling the part, is still working on a way to make the load pass state requirements, which probably means lengthening the 149-foot trailer on which the 73-foot by 15-foot part sits.

The part is needed to connect the $849 million bridge to land. The project is now four months behind schedule.

– Tom Lutey

West Plains

Garbage collection company changes

Residents of Airway Heights, Cheney, Medical Lake, Fairchild Air Force Base and rural portions of Spokane County’s West Plains will have a new garbage collection company if not a new garbage collector on May 1.

Spokane Valley-based Sunshine Disposal & Recycling will take over Waste Management’s West Plains routes May 1, the companies told Spokane County commissioners Tuesday. However, Sunshine Vice President Marc Torre said his family-owned company will use the same trucks with new logos and, in most cases, the same employees.

Sunshine also will acquire Waste Management’s yard-waste composting operation on the West Plains if attorneys find no unexpected problems with transferring the company’s contract with the Spokane Regional Solid Waste System.

Torre and Waste Management District Manager Steve Wulf declined to reveal the price Sunshine is paying for Waste Management’s territory west of state Highway 195 and south of the Spokane River. Wulf said his company’s focus in this area is Spokane Valley, where the company has its regional headquarters.

Wulf said Waste Management plans to move its offices and yards to property it has purchased at Indiana and Montgomery, just east of the Spalding auto wrecking yard.

– John Craig