By Shannon Lukens.

 

The bridge at Fish Creek Falls is now open.

 

It had been closed this winter by the U.S. Forest Service after all of the heavy snowpack and avalanche danger on the trail. Then it was kept closed due to high runoff and structural concerns of the bridge during the spring and early summer. Here’s Aaron Voos with the U.S. Forest Service.

“It’s just a combination of the age of the bridge, the erosion at that abutment which is caused by the flows and the water. It’s not one particular thing. It’s just something that occurred over time.”

 

But now the bridge is open. It opened up a few weeks ago, once water flows subsided. There are signs on either side of the bridge that say there is a maximum of four people on the bridge at a time.

 

And sandbags are placed along the bottom of the structure to stabilize it.

 

Voos says the bridge is expected to be closed again in the near future for more repairs. But it will be expensive. It is expected to cost $1 million to fix because of the location, the type of structure and the type of work that needs to be done. The Forest Service is working on getting that funding. If they can’t fix it this fall, the Fish Creek Falls Bridge will be temporarily closed again in the spring.