By Conrad Dudderar
Senior Staff Writer
After being re-inspected by a county bridge engineer, the Gregory Road bridge just north of State Highway 66 is back open after a $373,000 upgrade.
The bridge – near the North Canadian River – had to be closed late last year after an inspection revealed structural issues.
Built in 1985, the Gregory Road bridge is on the border between northwest Yukon and the unincorporated area of Canadian County.
Steel pilings that support the bridge deteriorated from the “ebb and flow” of water and oxidation from the air over time, District 1 Commissioner Marc Hader explained.
“Most of the bridge, the deck, the beams, and the wing walls were in good shape,” Hader said.
The project featured a rehabilitation of the steel H-piles.
“Coffer dams had to be created so that water could be pumped out to provide the ability to work on the piles,” Hader explained. “Metal angles were welded, five foot in length, centered over the rusted and deteriorated areas to restore the integrity of the piles.”
New sheet piling was welded in between the H-piles where rust occurred and erosion behind the back wall was present. Then those voids were filled with concrete.
The project contractor, City of Yukon representatives and Commissioner Hader met recently for a final inspection.
Lochner Engineering inspected the repaired Gregory Road bridge, which will be restored to its 48-ton rating.
Canadian County Commissioners and the City of Yukon in November 2019 agreed to split the estimated $300,000 cost for the Gregory Road bridge repair project, covering labor, equipment and materials.
Actual construction cost ended up being $373,000, according to City of Yukon public information officer Jenna Roberson.
“Because it’s right under high-powered transmission lines, we ended up repairing it and not replacing it,” Commissioner Hader said. “And we spent as much as we would have probably building a bridge to do it.”
A few citizens and a trucking company in the area were impacted by having to detour around the bridge construction project.
