Polk County observer. (Monmouth, Polk County, Or.) 1888-1927, 1912-11-19
EXPERT MAKES REPORT OF IN
VESTIGATTON INTO CoNDI-
TION OF WEST SALEM
STRUCTURE.
ONE NEW SPAN is NEEDED
Lateral Bearing in Two Steel Spans
Deficient, He Says; Should be Re-
placed by Entire New System;
West Deck Span is Considered
Most Dangerous.

Declaring that the bridge over the
willamette river at West Salem is in
need of repair and that such repairs
will cost in the neighobrhood of $17-
900, A. E. Eberhardt. of the Atlas
Bridge company, of Portland, who
was recently employed by Polk and
Marion counties and the city of Sa-
lem, to make a thorough inspection
of the structure, has made a report
to the Polk county court which was
considered by the court Saturday. No
action was taken in the matter the
court preferring to wait the initiative
of the other interests concerned in
the repair of the bridge.
Lateral Bracing Needed.
While Eberhart's report does not
indicate the bridge is in dangerous
condition at present, the repairs he
suggests according to his report are
needful to place it in condition to last
many years He says that the lateral
bracing in the two steel spans is in
sufficient causing the structure to os-
cillate from side to side, under load
and wind pressure, and that an en-
tirely new system of bracing should
be installed. This he estimates will
cost from $4,000 to $4,000 and will
prolong the life of the bridge
for years. He says that the main
members of this span have a carry
ing capacity of Is tons concentrated
on one floor beam. The early COM
pletion of the new railroad bridge
now under construction at West Sa-
lem will, he believes, eliminate much
=
and he thinks there will never be oc-
casion in the future to place the
bridge to anywhere near the strain
which it will safely carry.
New Span Necessary.
According to the Eberhart report
the combination deck span at the
west end of the bridge is in far more
dangerous condition than any other
section of the structure. He declares
that the span was not built satisfac-
torily in the first place, and that 1t is
impossible to repair it and place 1t
in as good condition as the balance.
The span is 115 feet in length and
must be substituted by an entirely
new span. This, it is estimated, will
cost in the neighborhood of $4,000
which includes one cylinder founda-
ton pier under the west end.
First report of the alleged unsafe
condition of the bridge came from
committee appointed by the Salem
council which made an investigation
and the result of such investigation
was the placing of a watchman on
the bridge and the distribution of
loads over a greater surface. Since
the report of the Salem committee
all loads passing over the bridge
have been required to keep at least
40 feet apart, as it was believed that
the spans would not safely stand the
strain of closer congestion. At the
time this arrangement was made the
Polk court had no active hand in the
matter and refused to accept the first
report made on the bridge by a cou-
pie of experts that the Salem author
tiles employed without consulting the
members of the Polk court. The ex-
animation by Eberhart was made af-
ter conference with the courts Of
Polk and Marion counties and the
city of Salem and is believed to be
competent and complete.
Allowed Election Bills.
The only other action taken by the
court at the Saturday meeting, was
the allowing of the bills for the judges
and clerks of the recent election. as
il was deemed advisable to give the
men their money rather than ask
them to wait until the December
meeting. The total cost of the cleo
tion approximated more than $500.