WAITSBURG – At their October meeting, the Waitsburg City Council approved a design and engineering contract with the engineering firm Anderson-Perry for work on the city's Main Street Bridge.

Anderson-Perry Technical Manager Howard Boggs discussed the beginning stages of the process ahead and explained the City will have decisions to make in the future.

In June, the state legislature appropriated $1.7 million to replace the 90-year-old bridge that is a flood hazard for the city. Unfortunately, timing is such that construction will end up taking place during the 2016 harvest, cutting off the route typically used by wheat trucks to access grain elevators north of town.

"When you start working in and around a stream, and on top of that the bridge is located in a historic district, it gets complicated. It's going to take probably half a year to get through the environmental stuff with the different agencies," Boggs said.

Boggs explained that the arch under the current bridge can collect debris during a flood, essentially becoming a dam. He said that federal highway funding requires that the bottom of the structure must be three feet higher than a standard 100-year-flood calculation.

"You don't have that judgment on you, so we'll have to decide how high we want to go," he said.

The 100-year-flood elevation, as determined by the Corp of Engineers, with the current bridge in place, is basically the top of the levee, Boggs said. He said that removing the bridge will drop the 100-year-elevation a little bit and that is the one they are supposed to build above, he said.

Boggs said the span will be a little wider because the bridge is required go across both the channel and the bank on the other side. He said the most desirable, cost-effective structure would be pre-cast concrete girders that he expects will be about five feet tall.

Boggs also said there are some elevation challenges. "For talking purposes, if we assume the water level is down a little bit, then we put the girders on there, the road surface of the bridge is likely to be somewhere around the height of the top of the guardrails that are there now. It's going up in the air so you have approaches that are going to look different," Boggs said.

Once the hydraulic analysis is finished he'll return to the council to determine which options will be the best fit for Waitsburg. He said the council will have input in how to arrange the approach, whether or not to have sidewalks, and if the historic look of the bridge will be maintained.

"The height (and how to arrange the approach) is what will be the challenge," Boggs said.

Council members briefly commented on the possibility of closing off the street in front of the city pool, making it a turnaround, and discussed the potential ramifications on Rankin Park.