Motorists who drive on Charter Church Road and Huskey Road in southeastern Jefferson County may be inconvenienced for the next year and a half after the Jefferson County Public Works Department closed a bridge over Plattin Creek for structural problems.
“We closed it this morning (Friday, Jan. 20),” said Public Works Director Jason Jonas. “We’ve put up barricades and signage in the area to let people know.”
The bridge, estimated to be about 36 years old, has been on Jonas’ watch list for some time, he said, and after the state inspected it about a month ago, the decision was made to close it.
“We’ve been keeping an eye on it for some time,” Jonas said. “After the state’s inspection, we’ve been communicating with them and we decided it was time to close it.”
Jonas said portions of the steel I-beams on the underside of the bridge are rusting away.
“We’re seeing 20 to 25 percent section loss,” he said.
The replacement of the bridge is on the East-West Gateway Council of Government’s Transportation Improvement Project list for 2018, but the continued deterioration will accelerate the replacement of the bridge by about six months.
“We’re negotiating for right-of-way now, and we’re hoping to bid it out later this year and demolish it later this year,” Jonas said. “We’d like to start construction at about this time next year, and hopefully have it open by May 2018.”
The project is estimated to cost $667,700, with the federal government paying 80 percent of the tab and the rest to come from the countywide half-cent sales tax for road and bridge improvements.
Jonas said the closure of the bridge shouldn’t cause too much disruption.
“It has a relatively low traffic count (about 277 vehicles a day). It will definitely affect a few folks, but there are numerous alternate routes that the residents down there are aware of.”
Jonas said he had planned to keep the bridge open as long as possible, but the recent inspection forced his hand.
“Especially with the local roads, we try to squeeze as much life out of them as possible because it costs $500,000 to $800,000 to replace one and most of them don’t carry that much traffic,” Jonas said, “but this one is at a point where we can’t hold it open for the last year.”