MERRITT HERALD EST. 1905
THURSDAY, November 21, 2024 • www.X.com/merrittherald • www.merrittherald.com
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Middlesboro Bridge reopens Michael Potestio CASTANET
Middlesboro Bridge reopens to traffic three years after being destroyed by flood waters. Photo/Laísa Condé
FLOOD SURVIVORS
A few Merritt flood survivors share their stories of struggle, three years after flood.
PASSPORT TO CHRISTMAS
The Herald’s Passport to Christmas is back for another year!
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The last visible wound on Merritt’s infrastructure from a massive flood in 2021 was officially healed Saturday as the new Middlesboro Bridge opened to public traffic. The bridge was washed out when an atmospheric river that November sent a deluge of water rushing down the Coldwater River, knocking out the arterial route along Voght Street. The City of Merritt held a grand re-opening ceremony Saturday morning for the bridge that drew about 150 people. The event included a few speeches, a procession of emergency vehicles across the span and a ribbon cutting. The new-and-improved bridge has been built to withstand more punch than the 2021 storm packed. There’s also a new multi-use path attached to the new bridge that connects to the city’s active transportation network. “It’s wider, it’s bigger, it’s higher,” Merritt Mayor Mike Goetz said, comparing the new bridge to the previous one. According to city officials, the new bridge has been built to withstand 500 cubic metres of rushing water per second, whereas the previous bridge was built to withstand 130 cubic metres per second. The flood that knocked the old bridge out was flowing at about
400 cubic meters per second. “It can withstand significantly more than the last flood,” said Sean Strang, Director of Flood Recovery and Mitigation for the City of Merritt. “Certainly this bridge is built to a much higher standard than the other one was.” Strang said the reason the former Middlesboro Bridge failed was because it didn’t have support pilings drilled down into the earth, so floodwaters undermined the bridge and it collapsed. He said the new bridge has those pilings drilled down 80 feet to prevent the bridge from being destroyed again. “[It’s a] significantly different construction method,” Strang said of the new bridge. Goetz said the bridge took just a year to construct, and will restore faster access to Collettville and be a boon to the local economy because the bridge is also a link to an industrial part of town, as well as the rodeo grounds. He said the bridge’s completion also helps make Merritt feel whole again, with the destroyed bridge no longer there to remind the community of the flood’s devastation. “It’s a very exciting day. It’s a happy day, we’ve got a lot of people here, and we’re just looking forward to having this
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