WSDOT has closed the Fairfax Bridge until further notice due to structural concerns. The bridge serves as an entrance to Mount Rainier National Park.
WILKESON, Wash. — A key gateway to Mount Rainier National Park is now closed until further notice, impacting not just park visitors, but the small towns that rely on them.
WSDOT announced on Monday the 103-year-old Fairfax Bridge near Carbonado is closed indefinitely to vehicles and pedestrians after a recent inspection revealed some alarming safety concerns.
A March inspection showed further deterioration to the bridge’s steel beams, the agency said.
Back in July, new weight restrictions were put in place for the bridge due to some of the deterioration that already existed. When those restrictions were put into place limiting the weight of vehicles on the bridge to 8 tons, an access road was created a few months later for residents who lived on the south side of the bridge and for emergency responders.
That detour route still exists but is not open to the public and is nearly 9 miles of gravel road.
The July 2024 restriction was the third restriction imposed on the bridge since 2009, according to WSDOT. In 2013, it said commercial vehicles were restricted from crossing the bridge.
People who live and work in Wilkeson said they understand the safety concerns with the old bridge.
“You don’t want anyone driving over that when the bridge collapses or anything, because it is well over 100 feet over the Carbon River, it’s kind of a scary thing, so understandable, but it is a little worrisome for us small businesses,” said Breanna Tomlinson, a chef at the Pick and Shovel Restaurant.
She shared that the visitors that go to the park are vital to businesses in Wilkeson.
“We definitely kind of expect for the tourism to come in, for them to go hiking and stuff and come down and eat our food and everything, it’s a big deal,” said Tomlinson. “That’s where we make most of our money is in the summertime with tourism.”
One business owner in Wilkeson said the service industry makes up a lot of the jobs in the town and that summer visitors are important.
“A big draw for kind of half the year is now cut off,” said Ian Galbraith, the owner of the Carlson Block restaurant.
WSDOT said it will further inspect the bridge over the next month to decide if it needs to close permanently, or if they need to look into other options, including building a new bridge.
Galbraith hopes the state will find the funding to fix the bridge and realizes how needed it is for visitors and the town.
“It’s beautiful out there, so for people not to have access to it, for a little community to be economically impacted the way it is, I would hope that they would be able to find something,” said Galbraith.
WSDOT will be holding a community meeting about the closure on Tuesday, April 22 at 4 p.m. at Wilkeson Town Hall. WSDOT said starting this summer, likely May, they will be getting more public input as they figure out how to move forward.
“I really hope they try to figure something out because it is a big business for us and if they tend to permanently close it, that is a huge impact on everybody who lives here,” said Tomlinson.
East Pierce Fire & Rescue serves the area and said it has alternate access routes identified to reach the south side of the bridge in an emergency, but the department did say response times will be affected and that the remote nature of the alternate routes will limit the number of emergency resources that can respond.
The Pierce County Sheriff’s Office said all their calls beyond the bridge come from tourism, and that there are only a handful of homeowners beyond the bridge. The Sheriff’s Office said it intends to operate as normal and take each 911 call in that area on a case-by-case basis and respond as necessary with the best resources they have. They said their responders will utilize the 8–9-mile gravel road for all routine and emergent 911 calls if needed.
Mount Rainier National Park sent the following statement regarding the closure of the bridge:
“Washington Department of Transportation’s (WSDOT) recent closure of the Fairfax Bridge as a safety precaution does mean that there is no public access to the Carbon River and Mowich locations in Mount Rainier National Park. There are no alternative public access options for these portions of the park and the length of WSDOT’s bridge closure is unknown at this time. Mount Rainier National Park will continue to share any information received from WSDOT on this issue. For more information please contact WSDOT at 360-357-2789 or 360-357-2716.”
