Cut trees blamed for causing bridge to wash downstream
Posted on Sunday, March 30, 2008
WATTS, Okla. - Residents are upset about an old, wooden-plank bridge that washed away when a flood carried logging debris that pushed the bridge off its foundation about two weeks ago.
John Taylor of Watts said the bridge, which was on a dirt road south of the rodeo grounds in Watts, would not have washed away when Ballard Creek rose out of its banks March 18 if loggers in the area would have removed tree limbs left behind.
"This bothers me," Taylor said. "It's enough to make you want to leave home."
Taylor said he was born in Watts, moved away, then moved back 14 years ago.
The 79-year-old bridge, known as Silver Bridge, was mangled when the water pushed it approximately 15 feet from its abutments. The bridge in Adair County is on Lake Road on the eastern edge of Watts' town limits.
Limbs, trees, aluminum cans, plastic containers and Styrofoam piled up against the bridge, forming a dam where the bridge used to sit. The creek, a tributary of the Illinois River, flows through the debris.
Three years ago Wingfield Engineering of Antlers, Okla., improved the bridge's foundation; but that work washed away, said Bill Childress, president and project manager for the company.
"It was a Band-Aid," he said.
The county commissioner recently hired the company to acquire right of way and manage the utility relocations for the project to replace the old bridge.
A new 160-foot-long, three-pier bridge will be placed 900 feet downstream from the old bridge and the road will be realigned, said Gaila Hiebert, project engineer for HUB Engineers of Muskogee, Okla. The 24-foot-wide bridge is expected to cost $ 700, 000.
Funding has yet to be approved, and the county commissioners would need to vote to do so, Hiebert said. Commissioner Haskell Kindle, who represents the district, could not be reached for comment.
Watts Mayor Bob Jordan said someone should pay to clean up the debris.
"I feel that somebody ought to be liable," Jordan said.
He said Kansas City Southern Railroad, along with other surrounding property owners, recently had trees in the area cut down.
The bridge has been closed to traffic for more than a year because it's needed repairs, but now it's been destroyed.
"It was fixable before this flood came," Jordan said. "Now it's completely totaled."
Residents who live south of the bridge must take Arkansas Highway 59 to Westville, Okla., or Siloam Springs to get back to Watts.
"It just reroutes them across the world," Jordan said.
The land north of the bridge, which was flooded in the recent storm, is scattered with tree limbs and railroad timbers. Many trees have been cut down there.
"It looks like bombs hit it, " Jordan said.
Jordan, who is also floodplains director for Watts, said he hopes to have all the land there declared wetlands.
"I'm trying to clean the town up and make it respectable," the mayor said. "It would be a pretty town."
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