Mesa County estimated it will cost $257,226 to design a bridge to take wastewater from Whitewater across the Colorado River to the Clifton Sanitation District. Construction is estimated to add another $1.1 million to $1.3 million to the final cost, said Pete Baier, director Mesa County Public Works.

The need for the wastewater line, and the bridge to get its contents across the Colorado River, is embedded within county growth projections. Mesa County is in the middle of building a government campus near the Mesa County Landfill, 3071 U.S. Highway 50, in Whitewater. The county is building a public works facility, a bus maintenance facility and a new home for Mesa County Animal Services. Some of those buildings are anticipated to open for business late next year.

In addition, the county is anticipating new subdivisions and businesses to sprout up in Whitewater in the near future. In anticipation of this growth it is building a wastewater lift station in Whitewater with the intent of connecting it to Clifton Sanitation’s plant at 32 and D roads.

The original plan was to attach a wastewater line onto the 32 Road bridge, but the circa-1960s bridge cannot hold any more utilities, Baier told the Mesa County Commission.

The bridge will allow for pedestrians, cyclists and horseback riders to cross the river as well, Baier said.

It is not a bridge to nowhere. From its point of origin, about 32 1/4 Road on the north side of the river, it will connect on the south side of the river with an old county road. That road leads to C 1/2 Road, Baier said.

In addition, the county is adding another 2.6 miles of riverfront trail east of 32 Road. The bridge will complement the entire trail system, Baier said.

Clifton Sanitation will be helping the county with the bridge, said Brian Woods, manager. The district will either temporarily relax tap fees or help connect the wastewater pipe to the plant on the north side of the river, Woods said.

The job of designing the new bridge was not put out to bid. The bridge was rolled into the existing $530,414 contract Mesa County had with Jacob Engineering Group to design a sewage lift station, force main and interceptor from Whitewater to Clifton. The design contract has grown to $787,640.

Baier said he is pushing to start construction by January, but he said with regulatory hoops to jump through — U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Fish and Wildlife and the Federal Emergency Management Agency — construction could be delayed until the fall of 2010 when river levels are low.

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