Thursday, May 2, 2024
Public Works Dept. said that the Cascade Orchard Bridge will be closed for a month which began on Tuesday, Sept. 6, as a contractor for Chelan County began the repair the deck of the 57-year-old bridge. During the month-long closure, a detour route is available via East Leavenworth Road. The closure is expected to last until Sept. 27, when the bridge will be opened back up to traffic. This week of Sept 7, the contractor will complete the pouring of the bridge’s new sidewalks. The sidewalks are being widened to 4 feet. During the closure, the contractor will work on repairing the bridge deck and then pouring the new concrete overlay. Once the new bridge deck has cured, a centerline marking will be striped on the bridge deck in early October. That work will require one-lane, flagger-controlled traffic but will take only about a half a day. The full project is expected to be finished in early October.
The upcoming bridge closure will impact the Leavenworth Autumn Leaf Festival, which typically uses East Leavenworth Road as an alternate route during the grand parade at Noon. Chelan County Public Works is working with festival organizers to determine an alternative route for the Saturday, Sept. 24 event. Public Works also will be working with the Chelan County Sheriff’s Office to occasionally monitor the detour route.
History
Over the years, several bridges have spanned the Wenatchee River at the location of the Cascade Orchard Bridge. It appears the original bridge was named after a plat that divided property in 1905 from the river all the way past East Leavenworth Road. The plat was called Cascade Orchards.
Completed in September 1965, the current bridge replaced a steel truss bridge that had been there prior for about 30 years. The current bridge, which is 390 feet long and has a central span of 175 feet, cost $203,921 to build. In 1966, it was chosen by the Prestressed Concrete Institute Awards Jury to receive the Special Bridge Award as the bridge demonstrating the best application of prestressed concrete, which was just gaining ground in construction at that time. The award brought some notoriety to the county and city of Leavenworth when it was featured in engineering magazines across the nation.
When once the Cascade Orchard Bridge served as a connector for orchardists and loggers, today it receives high recreational and multi-modal traffic year-round.
Today the condition of the 57-year-old bridge has deteriorated to a point where moisture is easily penetrating the deck surface and impacting the integrity of the steel and its adhesion to the concrete. Chelan County Public Works has patched the bridge several times in the past – about once every couple of years – but now a more permanent fix is necessary.
The county’s contractor will remove the top 1.5 inches of the concrete bridge deck and replace it with a concrete overlay that should last at least 30 years. The project also calls for slightly widening the sidewalks on both sides (4 feet in width, widening to 5 feet at midspan to meet ADA standards). Taller bridge railing that meets today’s safety standards and accommodates pedestrians also will be added.
The $2.26 million project will be paid for primarily with federal bridge monies from the Surface Transportation Block Grant program. Any remaining dollars will be paid for by county road funds.
As we have updates on the project, we will send them out on the project’s listserv. Sign up for emailed updates online or email us at public.works@co.chelan.wa.us
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