SEQUIM — Railroad Bridge has been reopened after volunteers repaired a fence that had blocked access to the west-side trestle before it was vandalized last week.
“We got it fixed today,” said Powell Jones, director of the Dungeness River Audubon Center at Railroad Bridge Park, on Friday.
“People can park in the parking lot and walk onto the bridge,” he added.
The historic bridge and trestle at the park at 2151 W. Hendrickson Road were closed Feb. 6 after the rain-swollen Dungeness River tore away pilings and a truss section of the trestle on the west side of the bridge.
The 150-foot bridge itself, which is undamaged, was reopened late Wednesday as a sort of viewing platform after Peninsula Trails Coalition volunteers put up a gate blocking access from the bridge to the damaged trestle.
On Thursday morning — less than 12 hours later — the bridge was closed again because the gate had been vandalized overnight, Jones said.
The gate’s chicken wire was peeled away, and the vandals climbed onto the trestle and kicked the gate open from the inside, Jones said.
They also threw a “Danger” sign into the river, he said.
After the vandalism, Peninsula Trails Coalition volunteers went to work again, and by 3:30 p.m. Friday, they had repaired the gate.
It now blocks access to the damaged trestle, and the bridge has been opened again to public access, Jones said.
“It’s important to . . . keep the bridge accessible” so that people can view the damage and the change in the Dungeness River, Jones said.
“We want to allow people to see the logjam, the shift in the river and see the damage from a safe distance.”
The main channel of the river has shifted to the west because of rainfall from winter storms beginning in December, according to Hansi Hals, environmental planning manager with the Jamestown S’Klallam tribe, which owns the park.
The gate is on the east side of the damaged portion of the trestle, which is about 530 feet long, Jones said.
Second gate
A second gate — this one on the west side of the damaged portion of the trestle — is expected to be erected in the next few days, he said.
Both gates have been made by Peninsula Trails Coalition volunteers. Each gate takes about 40 hours of work, Jones said.
Each gate has cost about $250 in materials.
Materials for repair of the present gate cost $30 to $40, Jones said.
Until the closure, Railroad Bridge was a well-traveled passage of the Olympic Discovery Trail, a hiking-cycling-equestrian path that runs through parts of Jefferson and Clallam counties.
Now, the trail will be blocked at the bridge for months for trestle repair.
Jamestown chief operations officer Annette Nesse has said the tribe is seeking federal and state funding to redesign and rebuild the trestle.
The tribe has contacted U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, U.S. Rep. Derek Kilmer of the 6th Congressional District and state Rep. Steve Tharinger of the 24th Legislative District.
Nesse said last week it was too early to estimate costs.
Lack of access
Jones said that repair will be complicated by the lack of access to the damage.
“It’s not an easy situation because it’s in a salmon stream,” he said.
Also, he said, the damage is roughly 400 feet from the west-side paved trail
“This is the longest span over the Dungeness River,” Jones said.
“The damage happens to be in the middle of it, so it’s not easily accessible from either side.”
Grading for the historic bridge started in January 1914.
The Peninsula Trails Coalition maintains the Olympic Discovery Trail, which begins in Port Townsend, has legs from Sequim to Port Angeles and points west, with the vision of eventually extending it all the way to LaPush on the Pacific Ocean.
