Will link trail with Seaview’s 30th Place

LONG BEACH – Long Beach is looking into having the U.S. Air National Guard return and build another bridge along Discovery Trail. The bridge will be built over Holman Slough, and construction will begin next spring.

Long Beach city planner Jim Sayce said he had met with Jason Kessler from the Air National Guard out of Spokane, which has played a major part in building the trail that may someday link north Long Beach to the Port of Ilwaco. Sayce said Kessler is evaluating the purposed bridge near 30th Place South in Seaview as a training project for his unit in April 2005.

Kessler met with staff in June to talk about site conditions and look at the plans for the bridge that will be approximately 30 feet long and 14 feet wide.

Sayce said the city will pick up the tab for building materials and the real savings comes from labor costs.

“Normally a bridge would cost between $80,000 and $100,000 to construct,” said Sayce. “Hopefully, with the Guard’s help, we can do this for less than $30,000.”

To give some idea of savings, Sayce said the city built the wetland bridge in Beards Hollow for less than $60,000, but originally estimated construction costs to be close to $125,000.

“I was told recently a more realistic figure for the finished bridge was closer to $200,000, so we saved about $140,000,” he said. “So there is a value to working with the Guard on training.”

Some other items the Guard might construct at the same time include over a dozen entrance portals for the trail. The Guard will put those in if there is time, and there are also plans to construct a crossing maze at the SR-100 loop in Ilwaco, which forces bicyclists to dismount to cross the street. Those items are dependent on paving contractors.

“You really don’t want to put those in before the paving is done,” said Sayce.

After proper property acquisition in Seaview, legalities of which the city is still working through, Sayce said the Guard could put in an underlayment and rock the remaining section of the trail between Long Beach and Beards Hollow. Sayce said the city is unclear if time will permit work on that section of the trail.

“The primary purpose of Kessler’s visit was to evaluate the bridge construction,” he said.

The bridge will be have a timber frame similar to two bridges found near Beards Hollow. Four main Glu-Lam stringers or beams, which sit on steel pilings, will run the length of the bridge. The bridge will be able to withstand a load up to 15,000 pounds.

“The reason we selected this plan is it would take most of our lighter emergency vehicles and the county’s beach fire fighting rigs,” Sayce said.

The bridge will span the 30th Place drainage known as the South Main Outfall near the tree line on the dunes. A maintainence road links Seaview to the beach at that point. Following bridge construction, pedestrians and bicyclists will be able to detour onto city streets for the 24 blocks between Seaview’s 30th Place and Long Beach’s South 17th Street, where the paved trail resumes.

“The bridge will be high enough so the majority of drift materials will go right underneath it,” Sayce said. “It will have locking barricades at either end to keep motorized traffic off the bridge, but the barricades can be removed for use by emergency vehicles.