PORT ANGELES — Even before the concrete versions of the Tumwater Creek and Valley Creek bridges on Eighth Street officially were opened to pedestrians at 9 a.m. Tuesday, people were riding skateboards and bicycles, pushing strollers and walking across the wide, new spans.
“It’s a big social event,” said Tim Murray, a Port Angeles native now living in Washington, D.C., who happened to be visiting as the concrete bridges were opened.
While some ambled down the 6¬½-foot-wide sidewalks to admire the scenery from the pedestrian viewpoints, others sauntered down the center of the road on the bridges, where only vehicle traffic would flow after the 2 p.m. city ceremony.
“This is the only time we can walk down the middle of the bridge,” said Port Angeles City Council member Cherie Kidd, as she traipsed along the Valley Creek bridge, nodding to fellow council member Larry Williams, who pushed a bike as he walked.
“I made one quick pause at Bridge’s Grill where I left some money for the first few coffee drinkers and then came all the way across,” Williams said. “I started on the west side and came east. I represent all those west-siders.”
Said Darryl Northrup, a longtime Port Angeles resident who strolled across the bridge with his wife, Berda, “I’m surprised by how wide they are.”
The new concrete bridges are 47 feet wide, with two 12-foot lanes and two 5-foot bicycle lanes.
They cost $24.6 million — $21.6 million in state Department of Transportation grants, and $3 million in city funds.
Young walkers
Among those who began their celebratory walk a little early on Tuesday were five children from the Bo Baggins Daycare & Preschool at the corner of Eighth and Cherry streets — a block from the entrance to the Valley Creek bridge.
Sporting T-shirts that said, “The Bridge to Somewhere,” the children set foot on the bridge at about 8:55 a.m., following a banner held by Jane Childers, owner of the preschool.
She planned to bring her afternoon group of about 30 children across the bridges in the afternoon.
The opening was a relief, Childers said.
“We have a lot of parents who have been driving around the long way. It’s cut off parents, school buses, [Clallam] Transit buses to me.
“It’s been a transportation issue.”
Barbara Priebe, who walked the Valley Creek bridge with Wayyne Shields, said she thought the 1¬½-year closure of the bridges on a major arterial “gave people the opportunity to know there are other ways” to get around town.
But the Port Angeles resident, who once lived on the west side of town, was excited to have the route open again.
“We just had to come and walk down the centerline,” she said.
Shields remembered riding his horse in the 1940s over the original state highway trestles, which were built in 1936.
Then, he traveled down the center of the old bridge, too, he said. The horse wouldn’t have it any other way.
Joe Fisk, strolling down the pavement with Mary-Alice Boulter, said he was looking forward to Tumwater Truck Route having less traffic.
“The lights have been so messed up and there is always a delay,” he said.
“It will be nice to avoid that.”
Bill and Jennie Parkins came over from their home in Sequim to walk the bridges and take photographs.
The two said they had photographed the bridge work during the entire process.
Bike lanes
Larry Murray, retired from the state highway department, admired the wide bike lanes.
He used to ride his bicycle over the old bridges to and from work daily — and it was a tight fit, he said.
He did have one question:
“Where are the drains?” he said. “Where’s the water going to go?”
Teresa Pierce, city spokeswoman, said the bridges are designed to channel water to each end of each bridge.
“At each end of the bridge there are catch basins,” she said.
“The water then flows into a detention vault and then into a treatment vault, where it goes through a system of filters.
The system “keeps the water from going below the bridge,” she added.
“It’s taking better care of our environment.”
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Managing Editor/News Leah Leach can be reached at 360-417-3531 or leah.leach@peninsuladailynews.com.
Reporter Paige Dickerson contributed to this report.
