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Want to buy a bridge? Depot Street span might become 'hundreds of thousands of pounds' of recycling By BUFFY POLLOCK for the Mail Tribune FREE: Beloved historic bridge to a good home. Shipping and handling: about $2 million. The historic Depot Street Bridge over the Rogue River must be moved before construction can begin on its replacement, work on which is scheduled to begin by June 2003. The bridge is being replaced because of its decreasing ability to handle current and future traffic volumes. Jackson County construction supervisor Mike Kuntz said the county gladly would give the bridge to anyone with the $2 million it likely would take to haul it to a new location. And that's not including costs for dismantling the bridge, removing the old lead paint job and setting it up again. "Somebody has basically got to have a lot of money to take it," Kuntz said. "And if there is somebody out there who's interested and has the financial wherewithal, then they need to start thinking and planning on it pretty soon." If no one comes forward, the 434-foot span will end up as one very large heap of recycled historic landmark. "Hundreds of thousands of pounds of it," Kuntz said. But many residents would rather see the bridge stay in the community it has served for half a century. Bob Gail, 83, has lived in Rogue River for 70 years. He opened Gail's Market (now the Market Basket) shortly after World War II directly across from where the bridge was planned. He said it didn't seem that long ago that he pushed the county to keep its word. "Jackson County had put $100,000 in a reserve to build a new bridge at Rogue River," Gail recalled. "In 1948 or '49, I wrote a letter to the editor of the Medford Mail Tribune - the only one I've ever written in my life - asking the county commissioners basically, 'Where's that money and where's our bridge?'" Gail said his letter got the ball rolling and the bridge was finally constructed in 1951. "They were all dragging their feet and I jacked 'em up a little," he said with a laugh. "That bridge was why I started the store there. It was a good business judgment on my part, except I flooded out badly there twice." Gail said he remembered watching "a good many houses and barns" wash under the bridge during major floods in 1955 and 1964. "My store flooded out both times, but that bridge was the only one on the river that held. Several bridges upriver were knocked out by Steve Wilson's logging deck from Shady Cove (in 1964), and when those logs hit the Rogue River bridge, I might have ended up with one of his logs in the middle of my grocery store. But that bridge sure held." Lifelong resident Dick Skevington said he remembered the 1964 disaster all too well. "I was standing out there during the flood with Dale Hatch, and this two-story house came floating down the river. Boy, did we take off running." Hatch, born and raised in Rogue River, said he remembered feeling certain that no bridge could stand up to a house. "When that house hit the bridge, I thought for sure it would take it out, but it just got sucked under and it came out the other side looking like a bunch of timber scraps. I figured that bridge must have been pretty solid." Skevington and Hatch both agreed that anyone "from the old days" could tell a tale or two involving the bridge, not all of which are flood-related. Both remembered fishing under it, walking along its girders and throwing rocks into the river as young boys. "We used to have a postal carrier, old Nat Hart, that fished every day under that bridge for 30 years," said Skevington. "Boy, it'd come time for the mail to come in on the train and he'd drop his fishing pole and run to get the mail out. He was quiet a fixture around the town." Skevington said it would be nice if a home could be found for the bridge. "If they can find someone who can afford to do it, it'd be nice." Kuntz said the county had investigated alternatives to destroying the bridge as part of a requirement of the grant provider, the Federal Highway Bridge Replacement and Rehabilitation program. "There's a requirement that we look at trying to keep the historic structure in place," Kuntz said. "We took a look at keeping the current one as two lanes in one direction and building another in the other direction. We ultimately decided not to do that. "To do so would cost several million dollars more," he said. The half-century-old steel truss bridge will be replaced with an arch-style bridge with a wider deck, three traffic lanes instead of two, and the addition of bike lanes and sidewalks. The project is estimated to cost $13 million. The current bridge likely would be just fine for a smaller traffic flow, Kuntz said. "They should put it up by the high school so the kids could cross over (Evans Creek) instead of going up to Wimer and back. It would be a nice connecting point for that," suggested Alice Hatch, Dale's wife. Kuntz agreed. "And it would be close to the old location where it could still be part of the community," he said. Completion of the replacement bridge, engineered by David Evans and Associates of Salem, is anticipated for 2006. For more information, refer to the project Web site, www.deainc.com/depot_street. Buffy Pollock is a free-lance writer living in Medford. E-mail her at [email protected] . Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.