Show to feature Dover Bridge plight

DOVER - The plight of the Dover Bridge is getting some more national attention.

The bridge on U.S. Highway 2 is going to be featured on a History Channel program devoted to the nation's deteriorating public works infrastructure. The working title of the program is "Crumble," but producers expect the name to change by the time it airs in May or June.

A crew from Actuality Productions in Woodland Hills, Calif., was in Dover on Monday to conduct interviews with state and local officials, and to shoot footage of the aging bridge. The production company is perhaps best known for the History Channel's "Modern Marvels" series. It has also done work for "20/20" and "Biography," according to the Internet Movie Database.

The crew interviewed Idaho Transportation Department District 1 Engineer Damon Allen, Dover Mayor Randy Curless and Rob Tate, the city's engineer.

Part of the Curless interview was filmed at the west end of the bridge as tractor-trailers, logging trucks and commuter traffic passed by.

"Lives are at stake all the time," Curless said during the interview.

The steel truss bridge was built in 1937 and its age shows. The bridge structure has been struck numerous times by over-height vehicles and concrete elements of the bridge are eroding and sloughing off.

The bridge carries traffic over railroad tracks used by the BNSF Railway and the Pend Oreille Valley Railroad to transport cargo and hazardous materials.

Last year, the bridge was highlighted in a feature by Popular Mechanics entitled "The 10 Pieces of U.S. Infrastructure We Must Fix Now." Other infrastructure listed in the article included the Brooklyn Bridge, the Alaskan Way Viaduct in Seattle and the canal lock in New Orleans.

Producers for the History Channel program said the Dover Bridge will be featured alongside the river levees in Sacramento, Calif., the Tappan Zee Bridge in New York state and the Interstate 35 truss bridge in Minnesota, which collapsed in 2007 and killed more than a dozen people.

"I hope that it does some good towards getting this bridge fixed," Curless said of the national exposure.

The bridge was evaluated in 2006 and scored a sufficiency rating of 2 on a scale of 100. The rating inched up to 3 last year, after new decking was installed, said ITD spokeswoman Barbara Babic.

Curless, who crosses the bridge every day, said the new deck was an improvement, but the main structure continues to deteriorate.

"The change that I'm seeing, primarily, is the piers underneath it. With the freezing and the thawing, and the moisture that gets in there, it continues to split apart that concrete," he said.

A replacement bridge has been designed, but construction has been on hold due to ITD's funding crisis. A new bridge could be anywhere from six to 10 years away from construction.

However, Congress is contemplating a proposed stimulus package intended to spur the national economy by investing in infrastructure. In response to the proposal, the Idaho Transportation Board identified a half-dozen priority projects earlier this month.

The $40 million Dover Bridge project was not included, but Babic said the board's priority list was later withdrawn so it could be re-evaluated. The original list was based on an expectation that Idaho could receive about $90-100 million in stimulus funding.

"There's strong feelings that we would get more. If that's the case, Dover Bridge is included," she said.