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43 °F Forecast | Road Cams Saturday, April 9, 2005 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion Tempo AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map SPECIAL SECTIONS Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Menu Guide How To Guide Health Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Real Estate Guide Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Wedding Guide Passport to the Rogue Valley SHOP OUR VALLEY AutoFinder HomeFinder JobFinder Classified Place an ad TOP JOBS EXTRA Ashland News NIE Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People Volunteer Moving here? eSouthernOregon CUSTOMER SERVICE FAQ's Advertise with us Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend March 17, 2005 Contractors will be busy this summer on initial work to replace the McAndrews Road bridge over Bear Creek. Mail Tribune / Jim Craven Planning a new McAndrews bridge By MEG LANDERS Mail Tribune Showing serious signs of age and wear, one of Medford’s busiest bridges is slated for replacement starting this summer, and the city is pushing the schedule to beat the clock on fish and bird migrations. With birds building nests beginning in mid-March and fish migrating along Bear Creek in mid-September, the city wants to get in and get out quickly in replacing the McAndrews Road bridge over Bear Creek near Interstate 5. So the Public Works Department is asking the Medford City Council to give the green light today to seize needed land, with compensation, if necessary, and approve the overall plans. The new bridge will be 90 feet wide, replacing the current cracked, load-limited 60-foot bridge, and will have four travel lanes, a center turn lane, two 6-foot bike lanes, two 8-foot sidewalks, gutters and bridge rails. The plan is to build the replacement in sections so one lane will remain open in each direction during the entire project, said city engineer Larry Beskow. A bridge inspector discovered cracks in the McAndrews Road bridge in September 2002, and a six-ton load limit on dual-axle trucks and 10-ton load limit on tractor-trailer trucks was imposed on the bridge in October 2003. Advertisement The Oregon Transportation Commission a year ago approved $7.9 million for the bridge project, as part of a $300 million statewide bridge replacement program. The McAndrews project involves property owned by the Rogue Valley Mall, Lithia Toyota and Rogue River Valley Irrigation District. Public Works Director Cory Crebbin said there’s no indication that the owners will contest right-of-way purchases, but he wants the council to pre-authorize eminent domain powers in case it’s needed, preventing possible delays. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife has looked over the project and alerted the city to the need to remove trees and vegetation by the middle of this month so birds’ nests and eggs aren’t disturbed or destroyed. Also, the in-stream work period is June 15 through September 15, so the new bridge supports have to be built within that time. There is potential for federally protected native bird species such as barn swallows and cliff swallows to build nests under the bridge according to Steven Niemela, ODFW assistant district wildlife biologist. "It (the McAndrews bridge) is not a real high priority conservation issue," said Niemela. "There are a few bridges that have a lot more issues," he said, adding that some of the county’s bridges in Applegate scheduled for replacement have colonies of bats rearing pups. Dennis Hart, Medford’s public works design and construction manager, said the city hopes to begin removing 25 or 26 trees this week. Then next week they plan to drape fabric under the bridge to prevent swallows from building mud nests there. Once native species like swallows start building nests, they’re protected by federal law and a permit is required to remove them. Introduced species such as pigeons and starlings are fair game. Hart said the new bridge will expand to the north, toward the Rogue Valley Mall. Crebbin said the McAndrews Road bridge had 29,000 trips per day before the load limit was placed on it in. Probably 1,500 trucks have to be re-routed or should be re-routed daily. The Medford Police Department has been ticketing weight violations regularly, according to Medford police Sgt. Karl Haeckler. He said fines range from about $170 for 100 pounds over the weight limit to $2,300 for 9,000 pounds over limit. More weight than that and the violation is considered criminal and the truck driver has to appear in court. Because of the large amount of traffic, including high freight use, and the condition of the bridge, replacing the McAndrews bridge ranked high on the state’s funding priorities, said Crebbin. "(It was) one of the top-scoring bridges in the state out of hundreds," he said. The project is scheduled for completion in November 2006. Reach reporter Meg Landers at 776-4481 or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2005 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions | Website Feedback Student Loan Consolidation Conference Calls - $50/Month Home Security Systems Trunks, Footlocker, Trunk, Footlockers home equity loans helzberg Distance Education Diamonds Slippers Student Loans afsa teleconferencing Memory Foam Mattress w2 forms Tatoo Fasa Advertisement s