Clinton City Council to decide restrictions on overpass

CLINTON — The Clinton City Council will decide Tuesday whether to place restrictions on a deteriorating overpass on one of the city's major east-west routes.

The bridge sits on the border of Clinton and Clearfield and runs over the old Denver and Rio Grande rail line near 1000 West. It was built in 1983 and has begun to show signs of wear over the past decade.

About nine years ago, the concrete wall next to travel lanes on the northeast side had to be removed and replaced with concrete jersey barriers, city manager Dennis Cluff said.

More recently, the same concrete wall on the southeast side of the bridge has begun to separate.

Monday, the city is expected to spend a couple thousand dollars to cut off the separating wall and replace it with jersey barriers donated by the Utah Department of Transportation, Cluff said.

Underneath the bridge, cribbing — a concrete retaining wall assembled somewhat like Lincoln Logs — has begun to separate as well.

The cribbing is used for holding fill on which the bridge's steel beams rest.

Cluff said vibrations from vehicles driving over the bridge may have jostled cribbing loose.

"The engineers are very concerned about that," he said.

Thursday, city engineers from Clinton and Clearfield looked over the bridge and videotaped damaged parts.

The council will decide whether a lower speed limit and weight restrictions should be imposed to lengthen the bridge's lifespan.

The ordinance the council is set to consider would keep vehicles over 10,000 pounds gross off the bridge and would lower the speed limit to 20 mph.

Emergency vehicles on a call would be exempt.

The ordinance would no longer apply when the bridge is repaired or replaced.

Repairing or replacing the bridge is estimated to cost $8 million to $10 million, Cluff said. It's a project the city has planned for some time and was set to do this year, but federal funding fell through, so the project was scrapped.

"Hopefully, we'll get funding to replace the whole thing," Cluff said.

The council meets Tuesday at 7 p.m. in City Hall, 1906 W. 1800 North.

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E-mail: jdougherty@desnews.com