A new location of the Columbia River Highway was made from a point two
miles east of Goble to Goble Creek and a new concrete bridge built over
Goble Creek, making a saving in distance of about one-half mile and
doing away with several excessive grades, sharp curves and narrow
roadbed, also a dangerous bridge and trestle across Goble Creek.
A rock cut between Goble and Goble Creek was taken out by the S. P. & S.
Ry. Co. with steam shovels and the material used by them for riprap,
thus making a considerable saving to the State Highway Commission. The
material for the west approach to the new bridge was obtained by
blasting and barring down rock from a dangerous perpendicular cliff
about 1,000 feet west of the bridge, from which large rocks had fallen
onto the highway. To make the highway safe it was necessary to remove
this material and by using it in the bridge approach, did away with
other borrow which would have been necessary. The cliff is about 200
feet high with the highway and S. P. & S. Ry. side by side at the foot,
necessitating very light shots and careful work and was completed
without accident to men or interruption of traffic on the railroad.
[Illustration: ON THE COLUMBIA RIVER HIGHWAY NEAR GOBLE IN COLUMBIA
COUNTY. GRADED AND MACADAMIZED IN 1917 AND 1918]
The material for the east approach was obtained by trimming up the cut
left by the railroad company.
A contract for grading the cutoff was awarded to the Warren Construction
Company, August 7, 1917, and work started in July, 1917. From the east
end of the section to Ruben, about one mile in length, the material was
handled by teams. Rock work at Ruben and at Goble was sub-let to station
men. The fill across the flat between Ruben and Goble was made from side
borrow, by using a steam hoisting engine, with boom and clam shell
bucket. This work was done in the fall and winter and the material was
light loam and sand and very wet, and did not pack very solid in the
fill, therefore a strip of rock sixteen feet wide and one foot in
thickness, taken from the rock cuts at either end, was placed on the
fill and rolled thus making a solid base for the crushed rock macadam.
The engineering work was done by A. F. Pratt, resident engineer and W.
E. Eddy, assistant state highway engineer, until October 1, 1917, when
it was taken over by H. C. Compton, resident engineer, under the
supervision of Chas. H. Whitmore, assistant engineer.