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Council approves emergency repair for Park Drive bridge, engineer calls it a "permanent repair"
Summary
Council voted to waive competitive bidding and approve emergency repair work on the Park Drive wooden-piling bridge; the city engineer said the project will replace pilings and headers, move spans out of the main channel, and is intended as a permanent repair rather than a temporary patch.
The City of West Memphis approved an ordinance waiving competitive bidding to repair the Park Drive bridge and declared an emergency to expedite the work. Council members asked for technical clarification before the vote; the motion passed and the council approved the ordinance and the emergency clause.
Engineer Ward Wamish explained the structure is a wooden-piling bridge with a concrete deck and said crews will pick up deck sections, replace pilings and the supporting headers, and adjust spans to move pilings out of the main channel to improve water flow. "So this is a repair in that we're picking up the deck sections, putting in new piling, removing the piling ... but replacing the piling and the headers underneath that support the deck," Ward said, adding the work is intended as a permanent repair.
Council members asked whether the repair was a patch or a long-term fix; Ward emphasized the city sees it as a permanent repair and described related bridge projects underway in the city. The council also discussed debris and ditch maintenance as contributing factors to piling failure and noted ongoing efforts to standardize slab sizes for future work.
