Voids found under sidewalks

Columbia Falls got an unwelcome surprise when it started a project to rebuild intersections on Nucleus Avenue — the sidewalks next to the Nord Building have voids of nothingness beneath them along Sixth Street that will eventually have to be filled.

The voids date back to the 1905 when the Nord Building was first constructed, city manager Susan Nicosia explained recently. The sidewalks included the purple glass in walk with open vault to bring light into the area – that was fairly common at that time — there area also examples in Helena, Havre, Kalispell.

The glass in the walk would have allowed light into the basement of the building.

The agreed-upon fix by city council in the 1970s was to pour a new sidewalk over the “slumping” sidewalk. The Montana Department of Transportation made the contractors completely remove and fill the area before rebuilding Nucleus Avenue in 1981. There were permits in the file that had indicated that “fill” had occurred along Sixth Street as well, Nicosia told councilmembers last week.

But there was just one problem — the work was never done.

They rebuilt the sidewalk by just pouring new concrete over the old sidewalks and they’re held up by wooden beams, with a sizable void beneath them.

Eventually, the beams will fail and the sidewalks will collapse.

The city is now working on plans to completely fix the sidewalks on the fill in the void adjacent to the building, Nicosia told council. But it likely won’t be inexpensive, she noted.

Meanwhile, current contractor Knife River continues its work on “bulb out” pedestrian crossings at Sixth and they’ll also do the same at Seventh. The new crossings will have lights designed to make pedestrian crossing of the road easier and safer.