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Show Bridges Threatened Floods Continue To Plague Areas Throughout Garfield County Heavy rains that continued for three weeks throughout Garfield County on almost a daily basis caused widespread damage, straining both financial resources and available manpower for state, county and local government agencies. The first sunny day came on Tuesday, giving Utah Department of Transportation workers an opportunity to make inroads on damages caused along scenic Utah Highway 12 by heavy flooding flood-ing that was largely concentrated in the Bryce Valley area. The vital highway connects communities commun-ities along its length with each other and is the only highway connecting the eastern part of the county with the west. At mid-afternoon on Monday, the Highway 12 bridge at Henrie-ville Henrie-ville was closed to all traffic except ex-cept very light vehicles after floods undermined the structure, washing away rip rap, soil and concrete to expose the big "I" beams supporting it. On the same day, erosion farther north on the highway at Water Canyon bridge north of Tropic ate away at the Paria River channel up to the highway's edge. Some 40 miles east on the same state highway near Main Canyon Road, where waters had rushed down North Creek, similar erosion had kept crews busy hauling dirt for emergency repairs while the agency's main effort diverted to saving the Henrieville Bridge. At the Escalante site, the waters had cut into the supporting earth some 30 feet. Crews had constructed a temporary detour around the threatened area in anticipation of having to close it down, and were working at putting the channel back to its original position. While Panguitch had heavy rain, no serious damage was reported. Some flooding occurred near milepost 17 on Highway 20 north of Panguitch, with about a foot of debris strewn across the road. Just north of Hatch and in Red Canyon small slides occurred and culverts had to be unplugged. "Nothing so far like the east side of the county," said UDOT Panguitch Road Shed 3 Foreman Bruce Dalton. County Engineer Brian Brem-ner, Brem-ner, in charge of the county's road system, said, "Pick any place on the county map and you won't be far off. There are at least minor problems almost everywhere. "The road needs in the county already exceed our budget and manpower resources," he said. "The floods just put us that much further behind." He said the Burr Trail has been closed and it will be several days before it can be opened. Other trouble spots include the Notom Road; Cat Ranch Road and Trachyte Road, both east of the Henry Mountains; McMillan Springs Road, west of the Henry Mountains; Alvey Wash Road, Hole-in-the-Rock Road, and many other roads with less serious problems. For Henrieville, 8 miles south of Tropic where last week's major flooding took place, the major problems started with heavy early morning rains on Monday. Floodwaters began eating away about 8:30 a.m. at the earth that protected the Highway 12 bridge at its base. By 10 a.m., UDOT workers were called in. The waters rushing down normally dry Henrieville Wash had continued to swipe away at their target. Rather than moving evenly down the channel, the stream diverted to the western half of the stream bed, bringing the full force of the flood down the west side. By afternoon, the pylons and under-structure under-structure of the bridge had been peeled clean. In one corner, asphalt from the highway began to crumble off. Students living in Henrieville were sent home an hour early from school in Tropic in case the community should be cut off. "I was a third grader when the bridge was built," said Henrie ville Mayor Guy Thompson. Henrieville has been was cut off before, once in the 1960's and more recently in the 1980' s, when the bridge, now more than 40 years old, was endangered. After Monday's students arrived in Henrieville, the bridge was closed to all heavy traffic. Late in the afternoon, as waters began to recede slightly, Escalante Road Shed 324 Foreman Wade Barney, in an effort to divert the churning waters away from the west bank of the channel, mounted a D-7 Cat and rode it down into the wash. He began constructing a berm designed to divert the floodwaters to the opposite side of the channel. After his efforts proved successful, work was stopped until morning when the longer process of shoring up the damaged side could begin. All afternoon, flaggers from Panguitch stayed at the bridge site, stopping and turning back any fully loaded truck from passing over the damaged structure struc-ture until the word began to get out that truckers would have to find an alternate route to reach their destination. The Panguitch flaggers were replaced at 1 a.m. by their Escalante counterparts. On Tuesday, with no rain for the first time in weeks, crews began pouring concrete around the exposed "I" beams. Garfield Ready Mix, low bidder for the emergency repair work, began mixing and pouring about 100 yards of low-grade coarse concrete. State equipment was used to create a dirt form to hold it against the west wall. The state also used a vibrating machine down in the wash to help consolidate the concrete. Work was well along by late Tuesday, with state UDOT officials on hand for decisions on future work. The bridge over the Paria at Cannonville also suffered erosion of supporting soils and work will be required at that site. Eighteen-year-old Steven Heath Hatch, hunting with Kyle Nowers, both Panguitch, bagged this beauty Monday morning. The 7x8-point 7x8-point bull elk, weighing between 850 and 900 pounds was taken with Hatch's Hoy t Super Slam Eclipse. He coaxed the giant elk, a satellite bull to the main herd, into his line of sight with an elk call, bringing him down at 40 yards. It was his fourth year on the archery hunt; he shot the 28-inch buck deer earlier on this year's hunt. Photo By Nancy Twitchell Floodwaters rushing down normally dry Henrieville day, closing the bridge to all heavy truck traffic Wash peeled away the earth and concrete at the west while Utah Department of Transportation workers end of the Henrieville Bridge on Highway 12 Man- got out their heavy equipment to meet the challenge. North of Tropic and just north of Water Canyon Bridge, this section of Highway 12 has lost much of the bank that protects the road. Already threatened Photo By Rebecca Bales from last week's flooding, the banks along the Paria were eroded even more this week when rains continued for several days . |