MuskogeePhoenix.com, Muskogee, OK

Fort Gibson

Discussion

June 22, 2009

Road done; bridge is next

By Liz McMahan

Three Rivers Road, which winds 3.3 miles through the river bottom land northwest of Fort Gibson, is paved and striped and already seeing a dramatic increase in traffic.

“I was out there Saturday morning, and it is teeming with traffic,” said Muskogee County District 1 Commissioner Gene Wallace. “Now, I’m getting complaints people are going too fast.”

Wallace said the road is one of the heaviest traveled in his district and was one of the hardest to maintain. He doesn’t expect the maintenance problems of the past, but looks for traffic to continue to increase.

Paving the road cost about $500,000, excluding the labor Wagoner and Muskogee counties put into it, Wallace said. The job would have been impossible without financial aid obtained through U.S. Rep. Dan Boren’s office, the Cherokee Nation and the town of Fort Gibson, Wallace said.

The road will open up traffic to Fort Gibson and should have a positive impact on the town, said Fort Gibson Mayor Steven Hill.

The next project on the road will begin next year — replacement of the one-lane bridge over Grand River, Wallace said.

The existing bridge will not be removed because of its historic value. Instead, the new, two-lane bridge, will be built alongside it.

That project will be funded through an "extraordinary bridge program" established by the state legislature to fund replacement of bridges a county government alone could never afford to make, Wallace said.

At 766 feet, it is the longest rural bridge in Oklahoma, Wallace said.

It was built in 1926, with J.A. Moore as contractor. Muskogee Iron Works fabricated the structure.

Bridge experts use it as an example of what they call Parker design and note the Fort Gibson bridge is a modified Parker with four 180-foot riveted spans.

Over the years, the Parker design would not be used in bridge construction as the nation moved to heavier and faster-moving vehicles and needed stronger bridges, according to information from the Oklahoma Department of Transportation's Web site.

Reach Liz McMahan at 684-2926 or lmcmahan@muskogeephoenix.com.

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