PULLMAN, WA – City of Pullman officials say the new downtown infrastructure performed as designed but became overwhelmed with last weekend’s floodwaters.

A portion of downtown Pullman flooded at the Pine Street Plaza closing Main Street while sending water into adjacent businesses. Some of those effected business owners are expressing frustration about the city’s response and the continued flooding issues after downtown was rebuilt.

The massive city project in 2024 installed new infrastructure downtown including improved drainage. City of Pullman spokeswoman Meghan Ferrin says the new infrastructure downtown worked as designed but the water was just too high.

The Pine Street Plaza pedestrian bridge across the South Fork of the Palouse River downtown did float to the North bank as designed. Last year the span floated off its abutments for the first time since it was installed 20 years ago. The 2025 February flood left the bridge lodged just off the abutments and it took until August for crews to reset the bridge.

Ferrin says the timeline for possibly resetting the pedestrian bridge will be similar to last year. Crews have to wait until after flood season to assess the span and determine a plan forward. Ferrin notes that there may be discussions about scrapping the current bridge and going with a new design over the south fork that’s less prone to flooding.

The South Fork of the Palouse River in Pullman crested at nearly 9 feet on Saturday morning. That’s the highest flood since January of 1997 and the 6th worst on record. The Pullman flooding wasn’t forecast by the National Weather Service until Friday night.