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Kittitas County receives 2025 Annual Bridge Report; two bridges prioritized for replacement funding
Summary
Public Works presented the county's 2025 Annual Bridge Report, reporting inspections of 163 county-owned bridges and identifying the Town Ditch and Cascade Canal bridges as priorities for replacement funding; staff said the report will support grant pursuit and be reported to CRAB.
Joshua Fredrickson, representing Kittitas County Public Works, presented the 2025 Annual Bridge Report to the Kittitas County Board of Commissioners on Feb. 23, describing inspection categories, counts and condition ratings and answering board questions about priorities and load limits.
Fredrickson described two inspection classes used by the county: National Bridge Inventory (NBI) bridges (structures over 20 feet) and non-NBI short-span structures (under 20 feet). He said the county currently has 113 NBI structures and 151 short-span structures. In calendar year 2025 the county inspected 163 county-owned bridges. Of the NBI bridges inspected as of December 2025, the report lists 51 rated Good, 55 Fair and 7 Poor. For the non-NBI structures the minutes record 55 rated Good, an entry transcribed as "BB" rated Fair (the minutes are unclear at this point), and 8 rated Poor; the transcript text for the Fair count is ambiguous in the record.
Fredrickson identified the bridge over Town Ditch and the bridge over the Cascade Canal as priority candidates for replacement funding and noted that public-works crews have performed in-house maintenance such as bridge joint replacement to extend asset life. He said Public Works performs inspection services for the cities of Cle Elum, Ellensburg and Kittitas under reimbursement arrangements and that the report will be used to document inspection activity and to pursue state and federal bridge funding.
Vice Chairman Brett Wachsmith asked how the county determines a "poor" condition rating and how priorities are set, including differences for high- versus low-traffic bridges and load-restricted structures. Fredrickson said condition ratings take into account traffic conditions, proximity to the interstate and other factors; he also explained that load ratings have changed and that emergency-vehicle load ratings can differ from standard-truck ratings because of axle spacing, and he offered to provide additional bridge-specific load-rating details to the board.
No formal action was requested on the report; staff noted it would be reported to the County Road Administration Board as part of grant and programming work for bridge priorities.
