People with properties on the north end of the Arrowhead Trail in Hovland – past the Pine River Bridge – may be a little disappointed to find out that new decking will not be installed on the bridge until April instead of this month as planned. In the meantime, the bridge has a weight restriction of five tons.
County Highway Maintenance Supervisor Russell Klegstad recommended to the county board Tuesday, January 12, 2010 that they wait until better weather, especially since the project would involve working with heavy materials and using scaffolding over open water. The new decking was ordered in the fall but did not arrive until after winter had set in.
Klegstad wrote a memo to the county board that said, “Winters are usually made up of two types of weather: 1) warmer temps when snow is prevalent, and 2) colder days that are frigid and usually free from flurries. …It would stand to reason that we would be doing the deck work during the coldest days of winter, and this could be very dangerous. …We would have to cold start the machines, allow warm-up time, [and] possibly clear snow buildup multiple times. Also, the scaffolding that we would have to build over the open water would develop moisture during the cold weather and turn to ice.”
Klegstad called Como Oil and North Shore Oil and Propane, both of which are delivering only partial tanks until the new decking will allow the weight restriction to be lifted. Theydo very few winter deliveries past the bridge, and some homeowners fill their tanks in the fall before snow blocks the road, which is not always plowed by the property owners.
“I have talked with several homeowners, and the ones that I talked to were understanding [of] the conditions and were okay with waiting until April for the replacement but wanted assurances that it would be completed at that time,” Klegstad wrote.
“April is a slow month for our crew and it would be a time when I could include a somewhat larger workforce to complete the job,” Klegstad wrote. “The use of the bridge would be at its lowest traffic count.” Doing the job in the spring would also be easier on the equipment, Klegstad reasoned.
The county board unanimously passed a motion authorizing the postponement of the project until April.
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