David Heiller
The first
anniversary of the construction of the new Kettle River Bridge west of Sturgeon
Lake went largely unnoticed on June 15. I guess we can understand why no one
lit fireworks. But the Sturgeon Lake business district, if there still is one,
should have marked the event.
Larry Dagel at Sturgeon Lake Feed Mill
could have given away salt blocks to his farmers on the west side of the river.
The bank could have had a drawing for savings bonds. Dan Zimmer could have
awarded free gas. That might have pulled a few people into town. But I doubt
it.
The only thing that will get people west
of the Kettle River into Sturgeon Lake again is the new bridge. Believe it or
not, that bridge is supposed to open at the end of this week. That’s right,
this week, 1986.
Askov people may shudder at the mere
mention of a closed bridge. The Kettle River Bridge on Highway 23 west of Askov
was closed for a year in 1981-82. Not surprisingly, it was built by the same
contractor. People either had to detour through Sandstone, or on the gravel
roads to the north. Many a muffler, including mine, was lost on that lunar
stretch of road. People suffered, and businesses suffered.
 |
| The old bridge... (If anyone has a decent picture of the bridge, send it to me so I can replace this one.) |
The new bridge west of Sturgeon Lake isn’t
the grand affair of the Highway 23 one; but it’s close. The Kettle River west
of Sturgeon Lake on County Road 46 is only about 200 feet across. The old
bridge was narrow. Two Model Ts could pass on it going slow. The deck had a few
holes in it. The water was only 10 feet below the bridge, which had no piers,
just steel beams and a high truss. The approach to the bridge ran steeply from
both east and west. More than one person lost his life coming down the hill too
fast. The old bridge was an Edsel. The new bridge is a Cadillac, which makes
sense since it was paid for by state and federal money. The approaches have
been tapered, the bridge deck
raised so that the old bridge could have fit underneath the new one.
Pre-stressed concrete beams rest on cement piers that go to bedrock. The deck is
all rebar and cement. The bridge will outlast most of the people who drive over
it and gawk this weekend, including me.
Never mind the fact that it was supposed
to have been completed last fall. Federal paperwork delayed the project in the
spring. Heavy rains in the fall hampered construction of the piers. Solid
bedrock slowed the earth moving efforts of the approaches in the summer. Locals
will argue whether the bridge could have been completed last fall, whether it
was an act of God as the contract allows for, or an act of contractor, which
God allows for. Never mind that.
Think instead of the stories of heroism.
Like Dan Zimmer, who lives only four and a half miles west of Sturgeon Lake,
but had to drive 12 miles every day to his gas station on the detour road,
through Denham. Dan estimates he put an extra 6,000 miles on his car as a
result of the bridge construction, not to mention the extra miles for fuel
deliveries west of the river. Dan is an optimist though. He admits he lost a
lot of business, but he also supplied fuel to the contractors, which helped, he
says. He has the patience of Job, but not the vocabulary when he talks about
the bridge.
Even Dan’s patience ran a little thin last
Saturday. He had been sneaking across the bridge the last couple weeks, dodging
steam rollers and dump trucks. But the bridge was blockaded Saturday morning,
as Dan headed for a wedding. On the detour, his exhaust pipe fell off. Dan
struggled in the mud to put it back into place, dreaming up some new vocabulary
for the unfinished bridge. He fixed it well enough, then slammed the back of
the station wagon door. The window exploded. Call it another act of God.
Arnold Larson is another hero. He has the
first place west of the river. He is a beef farmer. Part of his farm is east of
the river. To tend his cattle, he had to drive about 15 miles, when before he
could do it in under three and a half. There were times during calving season
this spring when he was making four trips a day to the farm across the river
via the detour road. Maybe Arnold deserves the patience of Job award.
But everyone will be happy to see the new
bridge open. Chester Chmielewski, the Pine County Commissioner who helped get
funding for it, will be happy. People who work in Sturgeon Lake, or Moose Lake,
or Willow River, or Askov, will be happy. Dan Zimmer and Arnold Larson will be
happy. Automobiles will be happy. Maybe even the contractor will be happy,
though the workers have probably grown quite attached to the project.
I’ll be happy
too, or at least relieved. And like most everybody else who lives west of the
river, I’ll believe the new bridge is open when I drive over it.
