Trout Lake Trestle

Bids closed September 15 for the restoration of bridge 51A, but all the bids were too high and thus rejected by the US Forest Service. The job was advertised in the $250,000 to $500,000 range by the USFS (as a federal bidding requirement), though many of us who have a working knowledge of the project knew the budget was $295,000, yet the bids came in towards the $500,000 range. Apparently the USFS will try to negotiate something with those 3 or 4 firms that bid on this.
Much of the money is coming from the State Historical Fund and from San Miguel County, yet those two entities have to play second fiddle to the USFS. This whole thing started in 1996 and a mere 7 years later, the USFS still hasn't put together a workable project, in my opinion. Too bad, we may lose the trestle, and according to several at the USFS, that wouldn't bother them too much.
There is a nice photo of the bridge in Dell's new volume 10 of his Rio Grande Southern series. Dell told me a couple of weeks ago while visiting here in Silverton that he is taking it year-by-year, and retirement is not planned any time soon.