New bridge will rise

ST. GEORGE — Two years from now, and $3.5 million later, a bigger and better bridge will cross the Santa Clara River on Valley View Drive.

The old, two-lane road that dipped down and crossed several culverts to reach the south side of Valley View would often flood during minor rainstorms and annoy area residents.

Those frequent flash floods brought their own share of frustration to St. George city officials, who were in the planning stages of building a four-lane road through the area when January's floods washed the old one away.

"We're going to do the engineering in March and have a bid opening in a couple of months," said Larry Bulloch, St. George city's public works director. "We'll need to change the road grade and use a temporary bridge for a while, though."

The $300,000 temporary bridge will help ease local traffic problems caused by the recent floods, which wiped out a 300-foot section of asphalt and supporting earth. Local drivers might remember the bridge once it's installed; it's the same one the county borrowed from the Utah Department of Transportation in 1989 when the Quail Creek Dam broke and destroyed a bridge on SR-9 near Hurricane.

The permanent bridge will be constructed using Federal Highway Administration funds, and not money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Bulloch said.

FEMA's public assistance program will pay for 75 percent of other public projects that meet the agency's criteria, said Rick Williams, Utah Department of Emergency Services project officer.

"This has been a very supportive effort among local, federal and state people from the get-go," Williams said during a site visit to the Valley View bridge site. "It goes a lot smoother that way."

The state is the grantee for the federal funds, which means all of the 22 entities that applied for federal disaster assistance funds will eventually receive their money from the state, he said.

"We make sure the documentation is there and monitor projects through to completion," Williams said.

Residents have been "very patient" with the process, said Bulloch.

"They know we're working around the clock and that we're trying to expedite things," he said.

More than 100 work projects were submitted to FEMA's joint field office in St. George, and staffers are working 12-hour days, six days a week to get the projects approved and off the ground. Once approval is granted for a work project, funds are released fairly quickly, according to FEMA officials.

The Natural Resource Conservation Service will also award bids next week for tons of rock to be used in shoring up the river banks. Crews have been busy clearing debris from the river channels for the past couple of weeks in anticipation of spring runoff and possible future flooding.

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E-mail: nperkins@desnews.com