Temporary bridge being constructed at Snake River

By Anna Lionas |

It wobbles, it slides, it’s been determined unsafe to drive over.

The Snake River bridge on the Nome-Teller Highway closed on Monday for an estimated six days of construction as the Alaska Department of Transportation builds a temporary, single lane bridge on top of the existing one.

The bridge is an important thoroughfare on the Seward Peninsula, connecting Nome and Teller and is used by handful of residents living west of the Snake River.

During construction, a path along the bridge is available for people to cross during off-hours of construction, between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. 

Funds for the permanent replacement won’t be available until 2027 but the bridge has gotten bad enough to warrant a temporary solution for people to safely cross. According to the DOT the estimated project cost this summer is $1.5 million. 
“Our maintenance section has purchased an Acrow bridge. It’s a bridge that can be put together and taken apart,” DOT Project Delivery Team Lead Chris Johnston said. 

Designed to be modular, the one lane bridge will go directly over the Snake River Bridge, not resting on the bridge below, but the ground on either side. 

Every two years, the bridge design section of the DOT conducts inspections; it was there they observed significant settlement shifts causing the bridge to tilt in an extreme way. 

According to Johnston this shift is due to the bridge piles not being long enough to account for melting permafrost.

While the bridge has been wonky for many years, residents have observed it getting much worse. 
“Last December when it was icy and rainy out, twice I slid across the bridge,” Aaron Burmeister said. 
Burmeister is one of a handful of people living just the other side of the bridge. Their daily routine has been disturbed due to the construction, with crossings permitted outside of construction hours, though the crew is willing to work with residents.

Another resident of the other side, Erica Pryzmont, said the workers have been letting her cross if there is a break in the construction. It’s a narrow section of the existing bridge, on the uphill section.
“It’s been easier than I thought it was going to be,” Pryzmont said.

Cars line the road on the side closer to town, residents on the west side of the bridge must walk across to get to their vehicles.
“It’s an inconvenience but something we got to live with,” Burmeister said.

Others across the bridge are skeptical over if this is the right fix. 
“It just seems like a real expensive band aid on something they’re going to have to take apart,” Stan Morgan said.

Leading up to the closure, Morgan said he wasn’t formally notified by the DOT and found out through someone else who saw it on social media.
“Not that my opinion’s going to change anything, you know, but I just thought that it would be a common courtesy since we live a stone’s throw away from the other side,” Morgan said. 

One positive that will come out of the temporary bridge is it would slow down traffic, Morgan said. People usually zip by and with only one lane they’ll have to cool it. 

 Permanent solution 
The Snake River Bridge was first built in the 1950s and widened to a two lane in the 1980s, the last time major work was done on it.  

The replacement project already has a bridge design that will be similar, but the grading will be raised so it will provide more room for ice and water to flow underneath. It will be built to the current standard as opposed to the standard it was built on decades ago.

“It’s got some interesting geology under the bridge that kind of got some weird geology underneath it, but we’re able to design a new bridge so the foundation will account for that,” said Johnston.

Until then, the temporary bridge will stand in its place, linking the people on both sides of the river.