Design work begins on Adams County bridge project

RITZVILLE — Construction will start in fall 2025 on the first of six bridges that will be rebuilt to accommodate widening the East Low Canal. 

Adams County Commissioners awarded a $157,000 contract Tuesday for what Adams County Public Works Director Todd O’Brien called preliminary engineering. 

“The preliminary engineering is the portion of the grant that allows us to design it,” Yaeger said.  

The first bridge to be rebuilt is along Sackman Road northwest of Warden near the Adams-Grant county line. The county has received about $3.88 million from the federal government for the project, about $925,000 from the state transportation budget. 

Originally construction was supposed to start this fall, but Adams County Engineer Scott Yaeger said there were some delays between the notice of the funding and the money being released. 

The project will include rebuilding and lengthening the bridge and rebuilding the approaches along Sackman Road, Yaeger said. The total cost is about $4.5 million.  

The bridge crosses the irrigation canal, so that dictates the construction schedule, Yaeger said. 

“Basically, when the water is out of the canal,” O’Brien said.  

The new bridge will span the canal without piers in the water, instead being supported by abutments, called girders, anchored to the shore. The abutment and the bridge deck will be precast and assembled on site. 

“The precast girders are going to be what takes the time,” Yaeger said. 

The bridge deck is made of precast panels which will be installed separately then joined with concrete and a tie system. 

“That makes the eight panels into one structure,” Yaeger said. “We’ve found that’s the quickest way to build a bridge in that time frame.” 

Rebuilding bridges along the canal is part of the Odessa Groundwater Replacement Project, which involves Adams and Grant counties, the Columbia Basin Development League, other organizations and federal and state agencies. Sara Higgins, CBDL president, said the goal is to end the reliance on groundwater wells for irrigation in the Odessa region of the Columbia Basin Project. Irrigators in that section have been using groundwater wells since the 1960s when the development of the overall project stopped, which has put pressure on the underlying aquifer. 

The project involves widening the East Low Canal, which requires widening 10 bridges, two in Grant County and six in Adams County. The remaining five bridges in Adams County are along the canal northwest of Othello on Providence Road, Booker Road, Herman Road, Foley Road and Cunningham Road. 

The Booker Road bridge received about $3.8 million in federal funding, and Yaeger said county officials expect to learn this winter when that money will be released. The county has applied for funding for the third bridge but hasn’t received an answer, Yaeger said. 

    Six Adams County bridges are slated for expansion as part of the Odessa Groundwater Replacement Project. The work will start with Sackman Bridge.