County won't seek grant for Red Bridge

Flathead County officials won’t pursue a grant to remove the Red Bridge from the Flathead River near Columbia Falls after determining the county would have to spend too much money to complete the application.

In January, county commissioners directed county employees to apply for about $280,000 from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to pay the bulk of the costs to remove the bridge, which hasn’t been used for decades.

But after hearing another update on the application process, commissioners changed their minds and concurred with county Planning Director BJ Grieve  about not applying for the hazard mitigation grant.

Most hazard mitigation grants are for projects such as purchasing land in flood-prone areas or repairing flood-control structures and FEMA’s application software couldn’t accommodate the county’s request to remove a bridge.

After weeks of phone calls to FEMA and officials at the Montana Department of Military Affairs Disaster and Emergency Services division, which had approved the county’s request to apply for the grant, Grieve learned of more specific studies that would have to be completed as part of the application process.

The county would have been required to provide a computer model that uses hydraulic, hydrologic and topographic data to calculate areas that may flood. That data would also be used to determine the cost of potential damage in the event of flooding.

The county would also have had to provide an engineered structural analysis to determine the likelihood that the bridge could collapse due to various flood scenarios.

The grant application also requires that alternatives to removing the bridge be quantified, Grieve said. Those benefits are evaluated to determine if they offset the benefit of removal.

The bridge’s listing on the National Register of Historic Places could preclude grant approval, he said.

The engineering studies and modeling “would be costly,” Grieve said, although he wasn’t able to offer a specific estimate. The county would have had to hire engineering firms to do those studies.

Although FEMA officials HAD extended the March 31 grant application deadline to June 30, Grieve said the time frame still might be too short to get the studies completed and apply for the grant.

“I recommend we abandon the grant application and start looking at options again,” Grieve told commissioners.

Grieve reiterated that the goal of the commissioners is to deal with the hazards posed by the bridge, “whatever that option is,” not necessarily to remove the bridge.

Commissioner Dale Lauman concurred with Grieve’s comment.

“We’re not just going to tear down a bridge, we’d support any kind of endeavor that addresses the safety issues,” Lauman said. “The county’s goal is to minimize our exposures and liabilities, not to destroy a bridge.”

Reporter Shelley Ridenour may be reached at 758-4439 or sridenour@dailyinterlake.com.