The Columbia City Council approved the MKT Trail bridge replacement project in a public hearing Monday.
The Columbia Parks and Recreation Department proposed the replacement of bridges No. 5 and No. 7 on the MKT Trail. If funding allows, the department will include replacement of bridge No. 8. The new bridges will not require as much maintenance and inspection compared to the existing ones that are 120-years-old.
Park services manager Gabe Huffington says that the structure of the bridges is the main reason why replacing them would lower the maintenance cost.
“They have support columns that are stationed within the creek,” Huffington said. “Any time we have a large thunderstorm or heavy rain, we get a whole lot of debris that pushes up against those bridges. We have to clean those bridges by removing any logs, timber and trash.”
Mike Griggs, the director of the Columbia Parks and Recreation Department, said the total cost of the project will be $380,000, $230,000 of which comes from park sales tax and the rest will be covered by a grant from the Recreational Trails Program.
“We knew that this project was coming,” Griggs said. “It was one of the projects we identified when we put out the renewal of the park sales tax to the voters.”
Huffington said the project will take four to five months and is completely weather-dependent.
“If we have really great weather like what we had this winter, we will have a lot of work done, and our hope is to get the bridge open sooner than expected,” Huffington said.
Bridges No. 7 and No. 8 are located near White Oak Lane. Bridge No. 5 is close to Stadium Boulevard, the replacement of which, according to Huffington, will cause the trail near that section to close sometime around November this year. The trail is anticipated to reopen at the end of March 2018. A detour route using trails that are already in place will be available during the construction period.