Dover Bridge makes must-fix list

Bonner County’s Dover Bridge has something in common with the Brooklyn Bridge.

And it’s not a good thing.

May’s Popular Mechanics magazine lists both among the “10 pieces of U.S. infrastructure we must fix now.”

Last year a chunk of the 70-year-old Dover Bridge fell onto the railroad tracks below. Dover Mayor Randy Curless said he stood on the bridge and could see the tracks through the new hole in the deck.

It was the second hole in two years, he said.

The bridge’s condition has been “a big concern of ours,” Curless said. “We were hoping we wouldn’t get on the national news with that bridge falling down. The worst-case scenario would be if a school bus was on top and it collapsed onto a train.”

About 5,000 cars traverse the bridge each day on U.S. Highway 2, a major east-west routes in North Idaho.

Elected officials hope the national spotlight on the ailing bridge – which received a sufficiency rating of 2 out of 100 points during a recent inspection – will help secure funding for a replacement.

The Idaho Transportation Department already completed designs for the project, but plans have been shelved because there’s no money to pay for it, ITD spokeswoman Barbara Babic said.

The cost of replacing the bridge is estimated at $25 million and climbing.

“The Dover Bridge does need to be replaced,” Babic said.

But she insisted the bridge is safe.

Weight and height restrictions have been imposed because of the bridge’s condition and the speed limit has been lowered to 25 mph as a precaution, Babic said.

Though ITD repaired the deck of the bridge last year, state Rep. George Eskridge, R-Dover, said that hasn’t eased the concerns of those who use it.

Eskridge said he talked with a young woman Thursday who crosses the bridge each day.

“Her comment to me was she just shudders when she comes to that bridge,” he said.

State Sen. Shawn Keough, R-Sandpoint, said North Idaho legislators have worked for several years to have the bridge moved to the top of the funding list.

“We thought we accomplished that,” Keough said. “The design work was done and it was ready to go to construction. It fell back on the list because of the increased costs of concrete and fuel.”

Babic said there is no estimated timeline for replacing the bridge.

Because there’s no money in the state budget, Babic said ITD is looking to the federal government for help.

The mention in Popular Mechanics elevates the big problems with a small bridge in Idaho to a national issue, Eskridge said.

He hopes some good will come of it.

“It obviously brings some attention to the seriousness of the situation with the Dover Bridge that I think it warrants,” he said. “We’re anxious to get it replaced.”