FEMA funds kick off rebuilding of Schnepf Bridge

For more than three years, a vital link over the Queen Creek Wash in Pinal County that links suburban neighborhoods to destinations north has been closed.

Schnepf Road Bridge was a victim of a major flood in 2005, which was deemed a natural disaster by the federal government.

Since then, Pinal County has had to slog through a considerable amount of red tape, but it has secured funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency for 75 percent of a new $2.2 million bridge, according to county officials. The state likely will pay 15 percent of the project's cost with the county chipping in 10 percent.

Pinal County has opened up the Ironwood Drive/Gantzel Road route to four lanes to the west of the bridge since the flood, which has relieved a lot of the traffic congestion problems, county officials say. They are now targeting late 2009 for opening a new bridge, which will replace the old one that still stands across the now-dry wash but is impassable.

"I think it's very important," said Greg Stanley, head of the county's public works department. "When Gantzel Road was under construction ... we had a real mess as far as traffic going north and south."

At Schnepf Bridge, which lies between Combs and Ocotillo roads on Schnepf Road, the Cemex plant on the south side of the bridge makes ready-made concrete for home foundations, driveways and other uses in the building industry.

Pinal County filed a lawsuit in 2007 that named Cemex and other concrete, mining and land companies that operate along the Queen Creek Wash, suggesting that their activities could have changed the intermittent stream flow to the detriment of the bridge.

The county claims the stream's patterns were altered by the commercial interests, "creating unnatural and excessive erosion" near the bridge, according to a 2007 legal filing.

Stanley wouldn't talk specifically about a potential settlement on the lawsuit, but the talks center around making sure a new bridge isn't compromised by changes in the stream flow caused by commercial activity.

"We had some meetings with various companies in the area," he said.

Greg Combs, owner of the Pork Shop, a specialty pork business on Combs and Schnepf roads, said that he's not sure whether the bridge's closure has hurt his business.

Since the expansion of the Ironwood/Gantzel roadway - a major north-south route in the county - many of the county's suburban residents heading to Maricopa County have to use Combs Road, putting his business on their daily route.

"It's crazy, but it's hard to say," Combs said. "The ones that are south of the bridge have to turn on Combs."

But the history of the closure hasn't always been so smooth, Combs said. When the Ironwood/Gantzel route was closed for construction, traffic would back up in the area for miles during rush hour.

And as the county continues to put in routes around the area, it creates mapping headaches for local residents and businesses.

For instance, the intersection at Combs and Gantzel roads will be shut down for road work soon, and will force him to drive 10 miles out of his way to go to the bank at Hunt Highway and Bella Vista Road.

"It seems like if they were more concerned about traffic, they would come up with another solution," he said.

Meanwhile, county officials say the new bridge will be built in a "box-culvert" design that would add two vertical walls underneath the bridge to channel storm water runoff underneath the bridge.

The current two-lane bridge would be expanded to three lanes under the new design, creating a center turn lane.