PIle driving to close walkway

SANDPOINT — Pile driving for a pedestrian structure will force the closure of the walkway at the east end of the Cedar Street Bridge this winter, Parsons RCI officials say.

There has been a temporary walkway there during construction of the U.S. Highway 95 bypass. The pedestrian structure will ultimately tie the walkway on the shoreline extension on the east side of Sand Creek with the east end of the bridge via ramped switchbacks.

Parsons is bringing in a 110-ton crane to drive piling for the pedestrian structure, which won’t be open for public use until the Sand Creek Byway is completed.

“There will be a lot of heavy construction activity right there at the end of Cedar Street mall. That will continue through the winter,” said Tim Davis, project manager for Parsons.

Davis said he’s working with fire officials to maintain emergency access at the end of the bridge, but it won’t be accessible to the general public.

On Thursday, work started on the first stages of walls on the east side of the Long Bridge. Traffic has been shifted to the west side of the bridge, although trucks will still be moving in and out of the that area.

“That’s why we created the detour, so that we won’t disrupt traffic other than the intermittent truck coming on and off the construction site,” said Davis.

Work on walls and a common abutment for the off-ramp and mainline bridges in the vicinity of former Lakeside Inn is ongoing.

“We should complete the next stage of those walls here probably this week and then they’ll go into a 21-day settlement period,” said Shane Webley, a project engineer for Parsons.

Wall construction for the mainline roadway between the Bridge and Cedar street bridges is also under way.

Brushing and grubbing continues on the east side of Sand Creek upstream of the Cedar Street Bridge and construction of the cyclist/pedestrian path is scheduled to start in about a week.

Crews will also be working on habitat-enhancement areas in that area. The work involves installing deadfall trees with intact root wads.

“We’re taking advantage of the low pool,” Webley said, referring to this winter’s deep drawdown of Lake Pend Oreille.

At the north end of the project, sheet and H pile driving continues on the east side of the creek, near where the existing railroad bridge makes landfall. Production pile driving is also ongoing for southern portion of the Highway 200 overpass.

• The next construction update meeting is set for 11 a.m. on Thursday, Dec. 3 at the Transportation Information Office, located at 202 North Second Avenue. Construction updates are also posted online (http://itd.idaho.gov/projects/d1).