This $1 million offer has a catch: Give forever home to decommissioned highway bridge

Give this historic bridge a forever home, get $1 million.

That's the promise the state Department of Transportation made last summer. If you fell in love with that bridge after the first announcement, now's the time to apply: DOT recently published a request for proposals seeking interested parties who want to give the bridge a new life while preserving its historic elements.

That means dismantling, moving, and reassembling it, then finding a useful future for it. Saying you want to scrap it won't get you any points with DOT.

Department officials told The News Tribune last summer they didn't expect a bidding war for the bridge. While $1 million is a good chunk of change, who wants to be responsible for moving and caring for an antique, 371-foot metal bridge with several features ripe for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places?

A lot of people, it turns out.

"We had five people sign up just minutes after we announced the RFP was live," said DOT spokeswoman Claudia Bingham Baker, meaning five interested parties signed up through the DOT website.

When the department first announced the great bridge giveaway last summer, "That announcement generated quite a bit of interest," Bingham Baker said.

DOT heard from folks from as far away as Europe.

"I would say that probably maybe 30 or 35 people got a hold of us," Bingham Baker said. "We’ve had everything from somebody wanting to turn it into a home. To turn it into a piece of artwork was another idea. Other people have thought about leaving it as a bridge in a non-vehicle capacity, like a pedestrian bridge or something like that."

The bridge was built in 1925 and straddled the Puyallup River. After more than 80 years in service, it was decommissioned and replaced in 2015 because it had "reached the end of its useful life," DOT said. It's been relocated onto state right-of-way in Puyallup while the department finds a new home for it, but it has to be removed before June 30, 2019 to make way for the state Route 167 completion project.

If there are no bids that meet the qualifications and the bridge is still there as of that date, DOT will have to demolish it. The agreement the department has with the state Department of Archaeological and Historic Preservation is that it will make a good faith effort to find the bridge a new home before doing that.

The cost to demolish it: $1 million.

"That $1 million amount is based on our estimate of how much it would cost us to demolish the bridge," Bingham Baker said. "That's part of the federal regulations, it says in there if you are looking at dealing with a historic structure, you offer up the same amount it would cost the agency to demolish the structure."

Responses to the RFP are due by 4 p.m. on Aug. 9 and will be scored on a point system.

"We’ll be looking at how long somebody is interested in preserving the bridge, we’ll be looking at whether or not they plan to have it open to the public, we'll be looking at how much of the bridge they are willing to preserve — the whole bridge or just the historical components," she said.

"We’ll be looking at the proximity to where it’s sitting right now, part of the historical designation of this bridge is connected to its history with the Puyallup valley in particular, so we’ll give people more points if they're interested in keeping the bridge in the Puyallup area."

Information about the bridge and RFP can be found at www.wsdot.wa.gov/Bridge/ForSale/SR-167-Puyallup-River-Meridian-St-Bridge.htm

This story was originally published June 22, 2018 at 2:40 PM with the headline "This $1 million offer has a catch: Give forever home to decommissioned highway bridge."