MOTT, ND — Kayakers on the Cannonball River near Mott encountered a partially collapsed bridge, a retired train track crossing, during a routine trip. The bridge, a familiar landmark for kayakers and the Mott community, had long been considered hazardous. "We'd always been leery to go under it just because it looked precarious," said Lois Rixen, a Mott resident in the group of kayakers who spotted the bridge on the morning of July 17.
"We turned around. We weren't going to go under the other end." Peggy Fiedler, who has been kayaking the Cannonball for around six years, was also part of the group.
She snapped pictures of the half-collapsed bridge and shared them in a local Mott Facebook group. Another group member replied with a picture of the bridge taken just days earlier, showing it still intact. The bridge sits on Donald Schaible's property.
Schaible, a senator for District 31, inherited the property and the bridge from his father. He says that he was aware of the bridge's erosion over the years. ADVERTISEMENT "It's been deteriorating for some time.
It just fell in a couple of weeks ago," he said. "Now it's a bit of a hazard with the ice jams and flooding that could happen." Schaible says he is currently looking into resources and working with various agencies to address the issue.
However, the size and weight of the bridge present many unique challenges. "It's a hundred-ton steel bridge, and it's no easy task," he said. "I've been looking at that for several years.
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