The Benton City – Kiona Bridge is a steel

box girder A box girder or tubular girder (or box beam) is a girder that forms an enclosed tube with multiple walls, as opposed to an i-beam, - or H-beam. Originally constructed of wrought iron joined by riveting, they are now made of rolled steel, rolled ...

and

cable-stayed bridge A cable-stayed bridge has one or more ''towers'' (or ''pylons''), from which wire rope, cables support the bridge deck. A distinctive feature are the cables or wikt:stay#Etymology 3, stays, which run directly from the tower to the deck, norm ...

carrying two lanes of Washington State Route 225 over the

Yakima River The Yakima River is a tributary of the Columbia River in south central and eastern Washington state, named for the indigenous Yakama people. Lewis and Clark mention in their journals that the Chin-nâm pam (or the Lower Snake River Chamnapam N ...

in Benton City, Benton County,

Washington Washington most commonly refers to: * George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States * Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A ...

. The current span was opened to traffic on July 4, 1957 and measures by wide. Two bridges had previously connected the cities of Benton City and Kiona before and were located downstream. The first bridge was open by 1901, and the immediate predecessor bridge was closed and torn down in 1964. The bridge is owned and maintained by the

Washington State Department of Transportation The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT or WashDOT, both ) is a governmental agency that constructs, maintains, and regulates the use of transportation infrastructure in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington. Establi ...

, and was added to the

Washington Heritage Register The Washington Heritage Register is an official list of sites and properties found throughout Washington state, United States. The Washington Heritage Register is administered by the Washington State Department of Archaeology and Historic Preserva ...

on January 25, 2002.

Description

The Benton City – Kiona Bridge is located about from the southern terminus of Washington State Route 225 (SR 225) in Benton City, just south of downtown. The unincorporated community of Kiona is just south of

concurrent Concurrent means happening at the same time. Concurrency, concurrent, or concurrence may refer to: Law * Concurrence, in jurisprudence, the need to prove both ''actus reus'' and ''mens rea'' * Concurring opinion (also called a "concurrence"), a ...

highways

Interstate 82 Interstate 82 (I-82) is an Interstate Highway System, Interstate Highway in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States that travels through parts of Washington (state), Washington and Oregon. It runs from its northwestern terminus at I ...

(I-82) /

U.S. Route 12 U.S. Route 12 or U.S. Highway 12 (US 12) is an east–west United States Numbered Highway, running from Aberdeen, Washington, to Detroit, Michigan, for almost . The highway has mostly been superseded by Interstate 90 (I-90 ...

(US 12), where SR 225 terminates. The bridge is by wide, carrying two lanes of SR 225, linking Benton City to I-82/US 12. While SR 225 on both sides of the bridge features

bicycle lane Bike lanes (US) or cycle lanes (UK) are types of bikeways (cycleways) with lanes on the roadway for cyclists only. In the United Kingdom, an on-road cycle-lane can be firmly restricted to cycles (marked with a solid white line, entry by motor ...

s, the bridge does not. The bridge does feature

sidewalk A sidewalk (North American English), pavement (British English, South African English), or footpath (Hiberno-English, Irish English, Indian English, Australian English, New Zealand English) is a path along the side of a road. Usually constr ...

s raised above the roadway surface. The bridge, as well as the remainder of SR 225 are considered a major collector road by the

(WSDOT), which the

Federal Highway Administration The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) is a division of the United States Department of Transportation that specializes in highway transportation. The agency's major activities are grouped into two programs, the Federal-aid Highway Program a ...

defines as linking towns to larger arterials. Every year, WSDOT conducts a series of surveys on its highways in the state to measure traffic volume. This is expressed in terms of

average annual daily traffic Annual average daily traffic (AADT) is a measure used primarily in transportation planning, transport engineering, transportation engineering and retail Location_intelligence, location selection. Traditionally, it is the total volume of vehicle tr ...

(AADT), a measure of traffic volume for any average day of the year. In 2012, WSDOT calculated that 9,500 vehicles traveled on SR-225 along the bridge.

History

Earlier spans

The first span recorded was built by 1901. That bridge was destroyed during a flood along the Yakima River in late 1917. This bridge was recorded on the Pasco quadrangle produced by the

United States Geological Survey The United States Geological Survey (USGS), founded as the Geological Survey, is an agency of the U.S. Department of the Interior whose work spans the disciplines of biology, geography, geology, and hydrology. The agency was founded on Mar ...

in 1914. The letters "US" were inscribed in one of the approach spans of the bridge as a way marker for travelers through the region. Major flooding happened along the Yakima River near Benton City in 1894, 1917, 1922, 1933, and 1948. A new bridge was built after the original span collapsed in the flood. By 1954 the second bridge was considered no longer sufficient for the traveling public with a roadway less than wide. The second bridge was torn down in 1964, seven years after the opening of the current bridge.

Current span

The first proposals for the current bridge were submitted in November 1955, with a cost estimate of $140 thousand (equivalent to $ in ). The bridge was designed so that there was a clearance of higher than the 1933 Yakima River flood level. The new bridge was to be built downstream from the previous bridge, but was built upstream instead. The second bridge had been in place for 40 years and was seeing an

average In colloquial, ordinary language, an average is a single number or value that best represents a set of data. The type of average taken as most typically representative of a list of numbers is the arithmetic mean the sum of the numbers divided by ...

of 1,700 cars-per-day over the bridge. By comparison 9,500 cars on an average 2012 day travel over the current bridge. Everett McKellar of Chelan won the contract to build the bridge, designed by Homer M. Hadley in 1956. Hadley designed the

Lacey V. Murrow Memorial Bridge The Lacey V. Murrow Memorial Bridge is a floating bridge in the Seattle metropolitan area of the U.S. state of Washington. It is one of the Interstate 90 floating bridges that carries the eastbound lanes of Interstate 90 across Lake Washi ...

across

Lake Washington Lake Washington () is a large freshwater lake adjacent to the city of Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the largest lake in King County, Washington, King County and the second largest natural lake in the state of Washington (state), Was ...

and the

Third Lake Washington Bridge The Third Lake Washington Bridge, officially the Homer M. Hadley Memorial Bridge, is a Pontoon bridge, floating bridge in the Seattle metropolitan area of the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington. It is one of the Interstate 90 floating ...

was named after him. The cost of the bridge came out at just over $196 thousand (equivalent to $ in ), and was opened to traffic on July 4, 1957. The bridge is believed to be the first steel

bridge built in the United States. The bridge was listed on the

on January 25, 2002.

References

External links

*
OAHP inventory form
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Benton City - Kiona Bridge Bridges completed in 1957 Bridges in Benton County, Washington Road bridges in Washington (state) Washington Heritage Register Cable-stayed bridges in the United States Steel bridges in the United States Box girder bridges in the United States Yakima River