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By Brenda Starkey
Chronicle Staff
BARSTOW - The World War II-era bridge linking Ferry and Stevens counties will be replaced next year in a $3 million, federally funded project.
The 50-year-old bridge over the Kettle River was put up for sale, but there were no takers, according to Stevens County Engineer Jim Whitbread.
Since the cost of demolition - for which the buyer would have been responsible - was expected to be very high, Whitbread said he hadn't really expected anyone to buy the bridge.
That expense will not be included in the construction contract for the new bridge, he said.
The present Barstow bridge is a single-lane structure with wooden plank deck and is nothing special, unlike the Curlew bridge in Ferry County, Whitbread said. The Curlew bridge was restored with historical structures funding.
The surplus military bridge was put in place in 1947 after floods damaged several previous bridges, according to History Link, an online encyclopedia of Washington state history.
An additional structure was added to it so it could span the river, since the 125-foot prefabricated-steel military bridge was too short, History Link said.
The Pratt truss section was a railroad bridge designed for rapid replacement of war-damaged bridges in Europe. Following the war, surplus bridges were made available to local governments at minimal cost, History Link said.
Stevens and Ferry counties purchased the bridge, arranged shipment from New York and hired a contractor to install it for a total cost of less than $45,000, according to History Link.
The bridge was listed on the National Register of Historic places in 1995, the Web site said.
The bridge sees 522 vehicle crossings a day, Whitbread said.
Stevens County has been working on the project for six years and finally got federal bridge replacement money, he said.
Construction will begin in 2010 and take approximately one year, he said.
Drivers will be able to detour via Kettle River Road to Laurier or the Napoleon bridge, he said.
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