Politics & Government

UPDATE: City Can Fight 'Functionally Obsolete' Tag on Healdsburg Memorial Bridge

Mel Amato, who founded the 'Friends of Healdsburg Memorial Bridge' and saved it from destruction, now wants city to press even harder for rehab money.

UPDATE: This story was updated on Sunday, Nov. 26, 2011, to add Healdsburg civic leader Mel Amato's comments regarding Caltrans' tagging the bridge "functionally obsolete."

After more than a year of frustration and delays, Healdsburg City Council agreed Monday that they needed to "strike now while the iron was hot"  to get state rehabilitation money for the or risk having to close down the historic span forever.

"We've all voiced the strategy to Caltrans that the citizens of Healdsburg want this bridge rehabilitated," said Mayor Tom Chambers. "They know that if they don't do this, that they will get some heat.

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"We need to strike now while the iron is hot," Chambers added, "even if it's only lukewarm."

Chambers, Vice Mayor Gary Plass, Healdsburg Public Works Director Mike Kirn and five Caltrans engineers met Friday at the bridge to discuss the situation, Kirn said.

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"Our emphasis to them was that there was no option other than rehab," Kirn said.

He said Caltrans has , but is still contending that it won't pay for rehab because "they say the bridge is still functionally obsolete," Kirn said.

"So we could spend $3 million to $5 million on seismic retrofit, and then if the deck failed, we'd have to close it down," Kirn added.

Council agreed to pursue an aggressive program of conference calls and presentations with Caltrans and other state transportation officials, letters asking for support from local lawmakers -- including U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson and state Assemblyman Wesley Chesbro -- and general lobbying on the issue whenever possible.

 "We need to call in every chip we've got," Plass said.

After overwhelming pressure from city residents and the grassroots citizens group City Council voted in September 2010 to rehabilitate the bridge rather than tear it down. Kirn said the but after each report, the agency still was not ready to approve rehabilitation monies.

"We gave them an update in August, and ," Kirn said. "After the October report, they said there were at least three reasons why the bridge is still functionally obsolete."

Kirn said the "crux of the issue is whether Caltrans will fund rehabilitation," he said. "We've been asking that question since Day 1."

Mel Amato, founder of the Friends of Healdsburg Memorial Bridge, maintains that the city has authority for the bridge and therefore can override any "functionally obsolete" designation by Caltrans.

"Our Memorial Bridge is NOT ON the State Highway System and, therefore, the relevant section of the Local Assistance Procedures Manual should be applicable," Amato said in an email to Healdsburg Patch.

According to the passage referenced by Amato (attached in the PDF at right under the photos), Caltrans has authority on state highway project designs but there are certain exceptions to Caltrans' authority when it comes to local project designs.

"Since local agencies are in a better position to assess applicability to any given situation on local roads, design exception approval authority (for those standards from which deviations are permitted) is now delegated to the City and County Public Works Directors," the procedures manual states.

According to the state manual, "design exceptions on local federal-aid projects shall be signed by the Public Works Director or the person to whom approval authority has been delegated," it says.

Amato also notes that he has told city management that he believes both the estimated traffic usage figures and rehab costs on the bridge are overstated and incorrect, but he said that his requests to city staff for supporting information "have not been addressed."

Healdsburg had envisioned 2011 as the year that the city not only restored and celebrated the Healdsburg Memorial Bridge as a regional showplace, but also the year that the city restored the Russian River and as the blood line and soul of the city.

Restoration of the bridge was supposed to have been a key component of that vision.

So far this year, the city has launch major events at the bridge, including the in May and the in July.

Chambers said he was cautiously optimistic that if the city could effectively present its case, there was a chance of getting the rehabilitation monies.

"Now is a window of opportunity," Chamber said. "We need to move as quickly as possible."

To see more details, click here to read the Press Democrat story.


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