Road workers will post new vehicle weight- and axle-limit signs on seven bridges around unincorporated Clark County in the coming weeks, in keeping with new bridge vehicle weight limit rating guidelines.
Most of the county’s bridges are 50 to 75 years old, county officials said in a news release, and were not designed to meet the current demands on the transportation system.
The bridges are:
• Gibbons Creek Bridge, built in 1940, on Southeast Evergreen Way over Gibbons Creek.
• Rock Creek Bridge, built in 1949, on Northeast Rock Creek Road over Rock Creek.
• Matney Bridge, built in 1955, on Northeast 68th Street over Matney Creek.
• Morgan Bridge, built in 1956, on Northeast 182nd Avenue over Morgan Creek.
• Venersborg Bridge, built in 1954, on Northeast 209th Street over Salmon Creek.
• An unnamed bridge, built in 1954, on Northeast 167th Avenue over Mudd Creek.
• Landon Bridge, built in 1955, on Northeast Clark County Landon Road over Yacolt Creek.
The Clark County Council approved the restrictions in December, in response to a federal directive requiring the county to update bridge load ratings for new truck configurations and heavy emergency response vehicles.
In 2013, the Federal Highway Administration directed local roads agencies to update load ratings for all the bridges in the country and include newer, heavier vehicle configurations. Specifically, the updated ratings consider special hauling vehicles, a relatively newer heavy vehicle configuration with multiple, closely spaced axles, typically four to seven axles to a vehicle.
