WEEKEND EDITION
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Saturday August 10, 2019
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Brookings, Oregon
SERVING CURRY COUNTY SINCE 1946
Rogue River
Holy Mola mola
In the ‘disaster category’ Linda Pinkham Staff Writer “Without a navigable channel, we are going to lose our fishing, we are going to lose our recreation, we are going to lose our tourism, and the economic fallout from that will be huge,” declared Curry County Commissioner Chris Paasch. Paasch’s warning came during a discussion of issues affecting the Rogue River at the Aug. 7 Curry County Board of Commissioners meeting in Gold Beach. “The (Rogue) has received an inordinate amount of rock coming down it the last several years.” Paasch said. “We’ve started to look into how we can make changes to that and how we can correct it.” Paasch said he contacted U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio’s office several times to prompt the congressman to speak with the Department of Transportation, instead of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, to free up the permitting process for dredging. “I’m afraid for the public,” Paasch said during a subsequent phone interview. “A boat could be unaware of the shoal in the (Port of Gold Beach) entrance and hit it at 20 to 30 knots, and people could suffer serious injuries. “The losses sustained … because of the loss of recreation and fishing are devastating to the lifeblood of this county. The revenues lost cannot be regained. This river needs some attention and we need to restore it to its former greatness.” The Corps of Engineers is in charge of keeping the Rogue River open from the mouth to the port’s business entrance, said Paasch. “The Corps of Engineers should keep the traditional channel clear up to Elephant Rock,” he said. “That would traditionally ensure that the river flows freely More Rogue on Page A4
A giant Mola mola surprises a group of kayakers near Thomas Creek Bridge. Photo courtesy South Coast Tours, LLC.
2,000-pound gentle giant I
The Port of Gold Beach entrance is almost blocked by the growing gravel bars stretching almost to the mouth of the river. Photo courtesy Port of Gold Beach.
Linda Pinkham Pilot Staff Writer
magine you’re paddling your kayak off-shore along the southern Oregon coast. Suddenly, you spot a giant, seldom-seen sea creature in the water ahead. That’s exactly what happened to South Coast Tours owner and guide David Lacey and his group last week during a sea kayaking tour near the Thomas Creek Bridge.
“Conditions were stellar this day and we were enjoying some of the best conditions I’ve seen in two years,” Lacey said. “We had finished our lunch break on an actual secret beach north of the famed ‘Secret Beach.’” After paddling alongside a school or two of harbor porpoise and through 10 natural rock arches, the group saw a fin in the distance. “I was very apprehensive as we approached this finned creature, as
I had this childhood horror movie rhythm in the back of my head,” Lacey said. “Turns out this sea beast was not the white shark that I first envisioned, but none other than a large ocean sunfish commonly known as a Mola mola.” The huge, flat fish is the heaviest bony fish in the world. Adults weigh from 545 pounds up to as More Giant on Page A3
Wait almost over at highest bridge in Oregon I
Pilot Staff
mprovements are wrapping up along a wildly used stretch of U.S. Highway 101 that leads from Oregon into California. The stoplight controlling one-lane traffic at Thomas Creek Bridge over Highway 101 is set to shut down any day now, according to Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) Public Information Specialist Dan Latham. Commuters will soon enjoy a 5-minute shorter drive by using both lanes. The stoplight was installed to regulate traffic coming from both directions. The bridge was open with just a single lane during the multiyear, multi-million-dollar construction project. Motorists who travel the
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route frequently may have noticed that workers began packing up the scaffolding and other equipment and loading it up onto trucks a few days ago. Located 8 miles north of Brookings, the Thomas Creek Bridge, built in 1961, is Oregon’s highest, at 345 feet. Bridges along the coastal highway are particularly vulnerable to wear and tear from traffic, marine-air corrosion, and occasional earthquakes, according to ODOT. The paint on the bridge’s steel truss sections had deteriorated. The project, which began in August 2017, removed all existing paint, repaired areas where corrosion had damaged the steel, replaced damaged rivets, and repainted the 58-year-old bridge’s trusses and towers.
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All of work performed on the bridge was below the deck, but containment structures could be seen from the bridge’s deck. Its surfaces had been rehabilitated in 2016. “They completed work on the north tower a few weeks ago,” Latham said. “They are doing some touch-up work now, and removing the scaffolding and containment. “Everything appears to be on schedule for completion this month.” The painting work was contracted through S&K Painting, Inc. The Thomas Creek Bridge work cost approximately $10 million, of an estimated $11.7 million slated for work on both that bridge and Reinhart Bridge south of Port Orford.
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Thomas Creek Bridge over U.S. Highway 101 is Oregon’s tallest bridge at 345 feet. A paint renovation project at the bridge is wrapping up this month. Photo courtesy Oregon Department of Transportation.
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