A bridge not far enough

Should the Wyoming Department of Transportation (WYDOT) invest in upgrading a bridge on Wyoming Highway 130 or should the Board of Carbon County Commissioners (BOCCC) spend more than $1 million upgrading Carbon County Road 504?

That was the question raised during the March 2 meeting of the county commissioners in discussion with representatives from the United States Forest Service (USFS). Historically, Highway 130 has been the main thoroughfare for logging trucks transporting timber to the Saratoga lumber mill. 

As the USFS approves more timber sales in the Medicine Bow National Forest, however, WYDOT has notified the Forest Service that weight restrictions on the Highway 130 bridge have changed. That information came from Jason Armbruster, district ranger for the Medicine Bow-Routte National Forest and Thunderbasin Grasslands.

"Approximately sometime in November, WYDOT informed the Forest Service that the weight limits on the bridge that's right there on Highway 130, right near the junction with County Road 504, that they were reducing the weight limits on that bridge based on some testing or analysis," said Armbruster. "That it can't sustain the loads that they thought it could."

According to Armbruster, while there had previously not been any weight restrictions on that bridge, those restrictions had changed with a limit of 25 tons for a tractor trailer and a limit of 27 tons for a truck and pup combination. A tractor trailer is what is often referred to as a semi-truck. A truck and pup combination looks similar to a dump truck pulling a dump trailer.

The district ranger added that both weight limits were well below what most trucks typically hauled, whether they were transporting equipment to a job site or transporting timber to a lumber mill.

"Just for reference, the feller-buncher on a lowboy, you're looking at about 35 tons at a minimum on something like that," Armbruster said. "A loaded log truck, a five axle truck, runs 40 tons and truck and pup combination can run between 51 and 57 and a half tons."

While Road and Bridge Coordinator Kandis Fritz stated there was no signage on the Highway 130 bridge indicating the change in weight restrictions, Armbruster replied that he had received the changes directly from WYDOT and that he was informed to count on the bridge being restricted in regards to logging contracts.

"The reason I'm here today is not to ask for authorization to haul on County Road 504, that would be something that a purchaser or a contractor would do, but in talking with Kandis a good first step that Kandis felt we should take was to approach the commissioners and find out if that's something that the county would be open to," said Armbruster. "That's for a couple reasons. One, it helps us with planning our vegetation management in that area. The Ryan Park area is a big area of focus for us to reduce hazardous fuels around that community. We've all seen what the wildfires in this part of the world have been doing lately and anybody who's been to that community knows that it's not in a good condition with fuels around that community."

Armbruster informed the BOCCC that a recent timber sale near Ryan Park had closed without receiving any bids. The district ranger stated that while there was one potentialpurchaser, they had ultimately decided not to bid due to the uncertainty surrounding the bridge. 

"We have another timber sale that's in the planning phases. That sits just southwest of the Ryan Park community. So, basically, we're trying to do vegetation management around the whole community. They're very high priority treatments but it's going to make it virtually impossible if there's not a haul route to get the material out of there," Armbruster said. "By far, our most likely purchaser is the mill in Saratoga for something like that and so that's the direction the material would need to go."

With Highway 130, apparently, no longer an option for transporting timber from Snowy Range, Armbruster asked if the BOCCC was open to authorizing hauling on Carbon County Road 504. To do that, however, would require significant upgrades to the road. While the road itself is 15 miles, only 10 miles of it is maintained year round. Five miles of the road, starting from Highway 130, are only seasonally maintained.

"There's a lot of agriculture and irrigation through that area. That road is not wide enough to handle heavy truck traffic," said Fritz. "Eleven miles would need widened, gravelled, cattle guards replaced, mag chloride (magnesium chloride) applied."

Fritz gave the BOCCC an initial estimate of approximately $800,000 to upgrade the road which included $660,000 worth of gravel, $88,000 worth of magnesium chloride and $40,000 in upgrading two cattle guards from their current wooden blocks.

"We have a precedent that's been established through the wind development over in Medicine Bow and those companies, they foot the bill for putting a better road use agreement with them and to get the road up to get their equipment in was on their dime," said Chairman John Johnson. "I don't see that even being an option for a logging operation for it to be $800,000."

Commissioner Byron Barkhurst added that he believed $800,000 was a conservative estimate in regards to upgrading the road. Armbruster stated that one sale, if successfully bid, would see around 691 loads while another sale would see 492 loads. Including the transportation of equipment, Armbruster put the total round trips at 1,300. That number, spread out over a three year period, would equate to two trips a day if logging year round. If the logging was only done during the summer months, that number would increase to three and a half trips.

Commissioner Sue Jones stated that an additional cost not considered yet was that of repairing Pic Pike Road, which becomes Carbon County Road 504 after passing through the stone gate east of Saratoga. Additionally, logging trucks would pass by the Saratoga Inn Overlook subdivision and through the Saratoga Hot Springs Resort before arriving at Saratoga Forest Management.

"I would suggest that everybody goes back and talks to WYDOT. That bridge has hauled log traffic for 40 years. When my late husband was logging there in the 1980s, they came across that bridge," said Jones. "If that bridge needs repaired to handle the commerce, they also have another bridge that overweight tankers-nine of them a day-are going everybody and we don't seem to be concerned about that."

As discussion continued, the commissioners discussed health and safety hazards posed to Ryan Park residents if the surrounding timber could not be harvested. Additionally, they discussed the loss of revenue and employment if logging was unable to take place due to insufficient transportation routes and the potential for future forest fires and the cost of responding to those fires.

While no formal motion was made, the BOCCC appeared to be in agreement to write a letter to WYDOT requesting they consider repairing or replacing the bridge. That letter, a copy of which was provided to the Saratoga Sun, was sent on March 5.

The next meeting of the Board of Carbon County Commissioners will be at 9 a.m. on March 16 at the Carbon County Courthouse in Rawlins.