Blackfoot closes walking bridge in city’s largest park out of ‘an abundance of caution’
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BLACKFOOT — The mayor has decided to close a popular walking bridge in the Blackfoot’s largest park for the time being.
While Blackfoot Mayor Marc Carroll said the walking bridge in Jensen Grove park is still “sturdy”, he said he decided to close it due to some visible deterioration in the concrete. The bridge will be evaluated through a contractor, who will present their finding to the city council and they’ll decide what to do next.
“You don’t feel any kind of shaking, you don’t get any kind of sense of instability,” Carroll said. “We closed it through an abundance of caution.”
The bridge, constructed around twenty years ago, hasn’t outlived it’s normal lifespan, which would be about 40 to 50 years, Carroll said.
Carroll said in addition to the deterioration on the edges of the bridge, there’s also three places where metal brackets have fallen out and into the water. When he and Wade Gardner, the parks superintendent, went out to look at the bridge, he leaned on the railing and tried to shake it.
“It’s very sturdy. It’s not moving at all,” Carroll said.
The city had an evaluation done on the bridge around about a year ago, so they’ll compare the deterioration from then until now.
Either the council will decide that no work needs to be done on it, deem it unsafe and demolish it or identify repairs that need to be made. Carroll believes the third scenario is the most likely.
Carroll doesn’t know how long it will take for the evaluation to reach the city council. Until then, he plans to keep the bridge closed.
While it’s on a popular walking route and many are fond of the bridge, Carroll doesn’t think people will have too much of a problem with walking a new route.
When Carroll was at Jensen Grove with Gardner, he spoke to some people who were recreating.
“There were three different people who were not walking together and I asked them ‘if we close the bridge down, what are your thoughts?’ And all three of them said they would just walk a different route,” Carroll said.