08/11/2026
8/11/26
A Letter to the Public from Director Topp regarding the Merritt Bridge in Priest River:
"Good afternoon, Bonner County residents.
During a scheduled under water inspection of the Merritt Bridge located in Priest River a significant infrastructure failure was discovered; two of the support pilings are compromised. One is completely sheared off about 6 inches above the bottom of the river channel, the other has some cracking above the water line and is supported by the concrete fill inside the pile. These piles are both located on bent 9. All of the remaining piles on the bridge did not show any signs of failure. Bonner County Road and Bridge is unsure of the cause; it may have been impacted, or construction or manufacturing defects.
This failure will necessitate either a significant reduction in access or the closure of the bridge. This bridge is inspected every other year above water and every five years below the water’s surface by dive teams hired by ITD (Idaho Transportation Department). We have been working with the dive team to come up with a permanent fix to restore the bridge back to the normal operating weight limit with no restrictions.
Parts have been ordered and we are waiting for their arrival, which will take about two weeks so the dive team can make the repairs. These repairs will also take about two weeks to complete and consist of digging out around the pile under water approximately 4 feet below the river bottom, installing a new casing and welding the new portion in place. They will then pump grout in through ports to fill the entire pile with concrete to remove any water in the pile. This will be a permanent fix to restore the bridge to its normal operating weight.
What we know now: we are waiting for an engineering team to complete the analysis of what the weight restriction might look like. We have been directed to reduce the weight limit to 105,500 lbs per vehicle for the heavy truck traffic and have asked the Merrit Brothers Mill personnel to talk with drivers about staggering their loads at the damaged section that is marked with cones until we have further information. We are also doing weekly inspections of the damaged area to make sure no further deterioration of the pile with the cracks above the water surface happens.
This bridge is the recipient of a 2023 federal-aid bridge grant to apply an epoxy seal wrap to the pilings and apply an epoxy driving surface treatment. We have been awarded this grant, and it is in the design phase now with construction to happen in 2027. This should preserve this bridge and extend its life expectancy for many years to come.
We understand that this is a major interruption to the residents and non-residents that use this bridge in Bonner County and we are on track to having this fixed in a timely manner. Road and Bridge will be posting updates on our website to keep folks aware of timelines and progress.
Jason Topp
Director of Bonner County Road & Bridge"
