SEQUIM — The new west trestle of the Railroad Bridge, which repairs a temporary gap in the Olympic Discovery Trail, was dedicated Wednesday with cedar boughs, blessings and speeches praising the improvements made at the Dungeness River crossing.
About 150 area residents braved a chilly day to witness the ceremony marking the end of a 10-month closure while the 570-foot wooden trestle, which had been damaged in a February storm, was replaced with a steel 750-foot trestle.
The $1.53 million project was opened to the public last Thursday.
Ron Allen, CEO of the Jamestown S’Klallam tribe, oversaw the ceremony and noted that the bridge was part of the very first section of the Olympic Discovery Trail to open.
“Mother Nature decided to take it out. We said, ‘Nuh-uh, We’re going to put it back,’ ” Allen said.
The Jamestown S’Klallam tribe has owned the bridge and the adjacent Railroad Bridge Park at 2151 W. Hendrickson Road, since 1991.
The closure and reconstruction had a generous helping of silver linings, speakers said.
“Take a look around and see what has been created, the new habitat,” said Jeanette Dorner, program director and tribal affairs for the Puget Sound Partnership, a state agency tasked with overseeing ecosystem recovery and one of several partners of the Jamestown S’Klallam tribe.
The new trestle, replaced just after the 100th anniversary of the opening of the adjacent Howe Truss railroad bridge, will allow the river to move into its natural floodplain, Dorner said.
“The river can meander, restore its ecosystems, to bring the river back to its natural condition,” she said.
About half of the trestle bridge passes over the cobbled riverbed, including the new main channel where the river settled after a February flood that rerouted the river.
The other half of the trestle passes over wooded floodplain covered with ferns, trees and berry bushes.
Other speakers included state Rep. Steve Tharinger, D-Sequim; Jeff Bohman, president of the Peninsula Trails Coalition; and Nancy Biery, member of the Salmon Recovery Funding Board.
Each praised the work that not only replaced the bridge but also restored salmon habitat while not disturbing active salmon runs, all while speeding the process far faster than typical projects.
S’Klallam tribal elders Elaine Grinnell and Kathy Duncan performed the blessing and smudging of the bridge to prepare it for another 100 years of use.
After being blessed, cedar boughs were distributed among the visitors, who were instructed to brush the sides of the bridge as they walked across to the western banks of the Dungeness River.
More than 100 people crossed the bridge, peering over the sides at the rushing river and the banks and trees framing the river’s path northward to the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
Since the tribe took over the bridge and surrounding lands, it has received more than $2.7 million in seven grants from five sources to restore and improve the area, Biery said.
The tribe also has received an additional $100,000 grant from First Federal to replace the bridge’s wooden decking with cement to match the surface of the new trestle.
The replacement trestle allows logs and migrating salmon to pass beneath without hindrance by reducing the number of support beams needed to prop up the walkway, the tribe has said.
The observation section of the trestle is incomplete, and temporary barriers have been put in place.
Paving the path will have to wait for warmer, dryer weather, Allen said.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5070, or at arice@peninsuladailynews.com.
