Storm damage tops $1 million

Damage from the December 48-hour storm has totalled nearly $1.23 million for Wahkiakum County.

Public Works Director Pete Ringen estimates it will take $800,000 to repair the AG Hanson Bridge over the Elcohoman River at Beaver Creek Road.

The bridge has five reinforced concrete girders which span the stream, and a concrete deck sits on top of them. Floods have battered the upstream girder and eroded around a bridge footing.

The road department closed the bridge last week to excavate around the eroded footing and reinforce it with large rock and packing material. It is now open to one-lane traffic with a 10-ton weight limit.

Many roads sustained erosion and related flood damage. These include Kandoll, Mill, Nelson Creek, Oneida, Foster, Risk, Deep River Valley, East Deep River Dike, Barr-Durrah, Elochoman Valley, Hungry Highway, South Hull Creek and Altoona-Pillar Rock.

The high waters also scoured abutments at the Foster Road and Hungry Highway bridges.

Ringen said Tuesday that because of the extent of the damage, the county will be eligible for disaster relief funds.

Wahkiakum PUD has estimated its storm damage at $40,850 (see related story elsewhere in this edition).

Commissioners George Trott, Dan Cothren and Blair Brady on Tuesday signed a letter to the regional administrator of the Washington Department of Transportation asking that the department address the flooding problem at Seal River. The area floods almost every winter they said and closes the highway.

The county ferry Wahkiakum ran longer hours last week as a massive slide closed US 30 just west of Clatskanie. Oregon Department of Transportation has reopened that route to one-lane traffic, but complete cleanup is expected to take many weeks.

The State of Washington subsidizes ferry operations and pays full expense when the route is used as a detour when SR is close.

For the time, Ringen said, the state of Oregon has agreed to pay a share of the operating cost.

Ringen had planned to have a major construction project underway this winter to replace and enlarge the ferry ramp and landing on Puget Island; however, federal agencies haven't yet completed the permitting process, and the project may not get underway in time to be finished for March 1, when agencies close the river to major construction until the following November to protect migrating salmon.

During the project, Ringen had planned to have a closure of ferry service so that the vessel could be pulled out of the water for inspection and servicing of the hull.

He said Tuesday he is going to ask the US Coast Guard for permission to delay that closure until the summer.