YACHATS – It’s a little high. It’s a little bouncy. And it may make some hikers a little nervous. But the 142-foot, $434,000 suspension bridge on the Amanda Trail opened to hikers this week.
There’s still a lot of smaller detail work around the north and south ends and near the Amanda Grotto, but construction workers are gone and the bridge and trail are open for the first time since October.
There is some cleanup work to be done, some trail widening, planting of vegetation, railings to install and work on stairs at the north landing of the bridge, said Joanne Kittel, the adjacent landowner and trails advocate who has spearheaded the public-private partnership.
“We’ve still got our work cut out for us,” she said Wednesday.
The bridge contractor, Cascade Civil Corp. of Redmond, still needs to install a bench on the south end of the bridge and deliver some gravel, but their work is done. The remaining work will be done by volunteers from the Yachats Trails Committee and View the Future, students from Angell Job Corps, and the U.S. Forest Service, Kittel said.
A bridge dedication ceremony is scheduled 1-2:30 p.m. May 21 at the bridge site, followed by a reception in the Yachats Commons and a small production of a play titled “Amanda Transcending.”
For a longer look at how the Amanda Trail suspension bridge came to be, go here
