During their June 9 meeting, Cascade County Commissioners voted to accept a preliminary engineering report from TD&H Engineering and submit an application for the Treasure State Endowment Program grant application for the Armington Bridge.

The existing Armington Bridge has five piers in Belt Creek that cause severe flooding when debris and trees become lodged against the bridge structure, resulting in health and safety hazards.

The county and TD&H conducted three public meetings, one in March, May and today’s meeting, to discuss potential improvement options for the Armington Bridge and gather input from the public.

The draft preliminary engineering report and environmental checklist review are available here.

According to the preliminary report, the preferred option is replacing the bridge with a three-span girder that has two piers in the creek.

The estimated cost for that option is $2.083 million. According to the presentation for the May 26 commission meeting, the funding strategy include $500,000 in TSEP grant funds and $1.583 million from the county through road and bridge funds, levying mills and an intercap loan.

The TSEP grants are a program through the Montana Department of Commerce and applications are due June 12.