Forest Service engineer who designed over 400 bridges dies

NORTH OGDEN, Utah (AP) — Thomas Gillins, a U.S. Forest Service engineer who designed more than 400 bridges in the Intermountain West, has died at the age of 58 in Utah.

Family members say he died of cancer Thursday at his home in North Ogden.

The Standard-Examiner newspaper of Ogden reports (http://bit.ly/1FDa48Z ) Gillins worked 34 years for the Forest Service based in Ogden, including 20 years as bridge engineer for the Forest Service region covering 12 national forests in Utah, Idaho, Wyoming and Nevada.

In 2010, he was named as one of two national lead technical support engineers for bridges and structures for the entire Forest Service. He held that position as well as the regional engineer’s job until his 2014 retirement.

He designed both backcountry foot bridges and highway bridges across major rivers and canyons, including the Hells Backbone Bridge across Death Canyon Gorge in Utah’s Dixie National Forest.

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