City takes first step to new bridge

HERMISTON – The Hermiston City Council has approved signing a memorandum of understanding with the city of Umatilla and Umatilla County naming East Punkin Center road as the best location for a new bridge over the Umatilla River. Assistant City Manager Mark Morgan said that’s the first step in what will be a long process.

“The one thing we have is we have the location,” he said. “The one thing we don’t have is any money at all to make it happen. We felt like we needed to make sure that we had all our ducks in a row before we went out and started asking for any funding.”

The preliminary engineering analysis and the decision on a location paid for by the three partners should indicate a unified agreement when applying for grants, Morgan said.

“Now we have that preliminary design work done we feel more confident in starting to go around and look for funding because the total coast of a bridge at that location is going to be in the range of around $40 million,” he said.

Morgan said Umatilla County has already approved signing the memorandum of understanding and the city of Umatilla is supposed to vote on it at its next regular meeting.

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