News

Culvert washes out on Fifth Street Bridge

By Scott Wagar

04/29/2014

The Bottineau county road crew took quick action on Friday and closed the Fifth Street Bridge after it was discovered that the east side culvert was being washed out by water flowing under and along side of the culvert from Oak Creek.

With the dirt and soil washed-out from the culvert, it dropped down and the bridge and road started to break apart and collapsed.

Late in the day, the road crew came back to the bridge and removed the pavement, concrete  and dirt on top of the culvert for safety precautions.

According to Ritch Gimbel, superintendent of Bottineau County Roads, the bridge will be replaced, but it is too soon to know when that will take place.  

“We are kind of in the preliminary decision making here of which way we are going to go,” Gimbel said. “We are trying to decide if it will be a box culvert or a steel pipe or another bridge structure. We are just going through the numbers to see what we can do and we are also checking on grants through the DOT.”

Gimbel is asking that people stay away from the bridge because the west culvert is starting to deteriorate and could drop and collapse, too, especially with the area being so wet and forecast for heavy rain in the area.