After 40 years, this wooden landmark at this Bellingham park is no more. Here’s why
An unused 40-foot-tall wooden trestle bridge on the north end of Boulevard Park has been taken down.
A crane was brought in to help remove the structure, part of which arched over railroad tracks. That was done by the afternoon of Thursday, Nov. 21, when the horizontal section of it was lowered.
Built in 1979, it’s also called a pedestrian overpass.
“There were a lot of cheers and feelings of relief as the overpass was safely set down in the lower park area,” said Gina Austin, project engineer for the Bellingham Parks Department, referring to the horizontal section.
“All the preparation and hard work by the contractors and consultant team gave us great confidence that this project would be completed exactly as planned,” Austin said to The Bellingham Herald. “The beautiful, sunny weather certainly made for an extraordinary day.”
The work continued through Friday as crews removed the vertical stairway part of the structure. They also dismantled the horizontal piece that had been lowered to the ground.
The city of Bellingham closed the walkway in February 2016 because of rot and damage caused by carpenter ants.
It was beyond repair, Bellingham Parks officials have said.
The bridge was built in the 1970s so pedestrians who were on South State Street could cross over the train tracks on their way to Boulevard Park. At the time, there was no other such access.
On social media, people bemoaned its removal — saying that the park wouldn’t be the same without the iconic structure and wishing that the city would replace it.
Building another overpass would have required the city to build a steel structure that also complied with the Americans With Disabilities Act. Such a project would have been expensive, Bellingham officials have said.
Blaine-based Colacurcio Brothers Construction Co. removed the structure.
Removing the overpass required the intermittent closure of Bayview Drive to vehicles last week.
Bayview Drive empties into the park entrance and its main parking lot.
The street has reopened to vehicles.
This story was originally published November 25, 2019 at 5:00 AM.
