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Districts collaborate on bridge-joint repair

When ITD works on bridges, it’s typically to better connect drivers to their destinations – but sometimes these projects help connect workers from different sheds and even different districts.

A recent project in District 2 showed how to build bridges between crews, while repairing a bridge over the Clearwater River.

The Bridge and Building team in District 2 is working through its first summer season and was presented early with the challenge of replacing several joints on the Arrow Bridge on U.S. 12. Fortunately for the crew, some neighbors from the north (District 1) were able to provide some guidance on this type of joint replacement.

George Lukes, of the Orofino Maintenance crew in D2 and formerly a D1 employee on their Bridge and Building crew under Gene Anderson, asked for assistance and Anderson brought down his crew to help.

“Our former Bridge and Building crew has recently been replaced with new employees, so having staff with the expertise and manpower was key to completing it so quickly,” said District 2 D.E. Dave Kuisti. “It also provided a great learning opportunity for our crew.”

While the Bridge crews from districts 1 and 2 replaced the joints, the Orofino and Lewiston Maintenance crews set up traffic control. Through this collaborative effort, the bridge joints were replaced and the bridge was reopened within eight hours.

“This operation was truly a 'without borders' collaborative operation, pulling together two districts for the bridge joint replacement along with two foreman areas for the traffic control,” said Roy Hill from D2 Operations. “I cannot say enough thanks to everyone that came together to make this project a success.”

"It was really terrific to see how these two crews pulled together to replace this bridge joint," he added.