Bids In For Windle Bridge Replacement; Fall Start Date

Overton County is a step closer to replacing a bridge in the Windle community through TDOT’s High Priority Bridge Program.

Overton County Highway Department Administrative Director Darwin Clark said the bridge that travels over the Roaring River is one of three that T-DOT identified for the program. He said Jones Brothers Contractors submitted the lowest of six bids at some $1.9 million. He said the county would only pay a two percent match to fully reconstruct the aging bridge.

“It was completely safe, it’s just the issue about it being the age on it,” Clark said. “And of course, you know, when you look up under a bridge that’s been there so long, you’ll see some rust spots and things like that on some of the, on the metal and the beams and so forth.”

Clark said the county is working with T-DOT to finalize a contract that he hopes gets work started before the fall. He said he locals should expect to use Sulpher Road and West McCormick Road as detours for up to 250 days once construction begins.

“We’re excited about it,” Clark said. “We’re needing it, and I know that, you know, it’s going to be good for the local folks traveling.”

He said T-DOT inspects the county’s bridges every few years and determined that this one was nearing the end of its lifecycle. He said the county reinforced the bridge with added steel beams for extra support several years ago.

“We’re getting a brand new bridge nearly for nothing for the county,” Clark said. “And it’s a great, it’s a good program for Overton County and it’s beneficial to Overton County. Of course, our Highway Department is usually strapped for finance.”

Clark said rising prices of even necessities as simple as fuel and oil have created added challenges to completing projects like this one. He said TDOT replaced a bridge on Rickman Road as part of this project, and this one has been selected as the next in line.

“We had some issues with the right-of-way, of getting it all taken care of,” Clark said. “It took us about a year to get all of that ironed out. Got everyone signed off on it and so forth. Now that we’ve got that done, we’re ready to move.”