Elmore Town Bridge Construction To Start Next Month

Crews will begin constructing a new Elmore Town Bridge in western Putnam County next month.

Putnam County Road Supervisor Randy Jones said the project will take about four months to complete.

“It’s been a long time coming,” Jones said. “I know the people on Elmore Town will be glad to see it done. It’s been a project that’s sort of been a thorn in our side between Baxter City and Putnam County. We’ve finally got everything worked out and having some progress now.”

Subcontractors for Dickson County-based Concrete Structures began demolishing the old bridge last week. Jones said the entire project will cost about $312,000, with the state funding 98-percent of that.

“The bid on the bridge was about $252,000 from Concrete Structures,” Jones said. “We’re (Putnam County) going to do the backfilling, paving, and other stuff around the bridge.”

The bridge has posed a challenge for many residents over the years. The state reduced a weight limit on the bridge a few years ago, preventing school buses from picking up 17 students living in the area.

“We put a detour in back in the fall,” Jones said. “We had to put a detour in for construction anyway, but we went ahead and put that in to help the school bus situation and anything else that had more weight capacity than the bridge could carry.”

The state rejected the City of Baxter’s plans to install a new bridge earlier this year. When that happened, the city council voted to de-annex the bridge and surrounding property. The county eventually took ownership of the area in order to expedite the repair project.