PIERCE COUNTY, Wash. — The Washington Department of Transportation (WSDOT) announced in July they were imposing a lower weight limit on the Fairfax Bridge near Carbonado in East Pierce County. '
The department lowered the weight limit to eight tons or 16,000 pounds.
The bridge leads to some homes that are south of Carbonado and leads to entrances to Mount Rainier National Park, like the Mowich Lake entrance and the Carbon River Ranger Station.
The WSDOT said this is necessary because a recent inspection showed deterioration of the steel supports on the bridge. The Fairfax Bridge is 103 years old and WSDOT said there is no funding to replace or repair the bridge. The agency said there is no detour as of now.
Due to the new weight limit, heavier vehicles like fire engines can no longer use the bridge, which is creating problems for emergency responders, especially if there is a fire.
“Our primary concern is that we can't get any of our larger apparatuses across the bridge,” said Matt Gilbert, deputy chief of operations for East Pierce Fire and Rescue. “So all of our fire trucks, tenders, anything that carries a significant amount of water, all of those are out of the question for getting across the bridge.”
Even if water is drained from their fire engines and tenders, they are still too heavy to cross the bridge with the new weight limit.
Gilbert said ambulances are under the weight limit and the department is making adjustments to get some of their smaller firefighting equipment, like their brush truck, across the bridge.
“If we need to get across this across the bridge, what we would have to do is drain the 400 gallons out and then use portable pumps in the river to fill the tanks,” said Gilbert of their brush truck. “So that is a prolonged operation, it would take more time."
WSDOT said they are in the process of securing private property to create a detour for emergency responders and local access. But it would be a longer detour, an 8.8-mile-long gravel road.
"I think ultimately what we would like to see is that we are able to get our fire engines back there to assist those residents,” Gilbert said. “It is at the front of our mind of how to deal with that problem and I would just like people to know that.”
KING 5 reached out to other agencies to see how they are impacted by this new weight limit.
A spokesperson for the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department said they are not impacted due to the smaller size of their vehicles, but said if there were to be a SWAT situation on the other side of the bridge the 16,000-pound weight limit would not allow them to cross certain vehicles they would normally use for a SWAT call out. She said they would still respond as normal but would operate differently with their resources.
A spokesperson for the Department of Natural Resources said they do not currently expect the bridge restriction to impact their initial attack capabilities I there were to be a wildfire because they have access to the upper Carbon watershed through other means.
A spokesperson for the Pierce County Department of Emergency Management sent the following statement:
“Pierce County Department of Emergency Management is working with WSDOT, local fire districts and law enforcement to enhance emergency plans based on the new weight restrictions. In the case of an emergency Pierce County Department of Emergency Management is prepared to support WSDOT, local first responders and the community.”