News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
The Putnam County Road Department accepting bids to replace the Bob Lynn Road bridge over Mill Creek.
Road Supervisor Randy Jones said the goal to restabilize the bridge by installing a stone foundation for new footers.
“Over the years these large rains have come through and got to eating our under the footers, and it is causing the bridge to want to… the wall to collapse on the inside,” Jones said. “That’s what’s causing the box culvert to keep sinking.”
Jones said bids are due by July 27th with a projected August start time. Jones said the awarded contractor will have 120 work days to finish the project.
“First, we were going to do a repair to it, and when we got in to looking and working on it for a little bit, we realized it was worse than what everybody thought it was,” Jones said. “So, we decided to just replace it. We have an engineer that has drawn up a plan for it. We have that in place. We have the permit in place, and the surveying is done.”
Jones said the stone foundation is the first step of the project. From there, steel work will begin to build the footers supporting the new bridge, Jones said.
“It will be on solid stone, and then, we will drill down into the rock,” Jones said. “They’ll put rebar up and form the footers, and then, it’ll come up from there. It will be stable when we get through.”
Jones said a similar project on Elmore Town Road cost about $250,000, but material prices has the department estimating a $280,000 price tag. The county road department will pay for the contractor with the grading and concrete work being done in-house, Jones said.
Jones said the bridge is currently closed and will remain that way until completion.
