Bridge closed

By WAYNE QUESENBERRY/Staff

The abrupt closing of the Route 610 Bridge last Sunday morning left the Louis Watson Sr. family in a quandary. The bridge was a link to the Watsons’ dairy and beef cattle farm along Peppers Road between Max Meadows and Gunton Park
“We have cattle on both sides of the bridge,” Watson commented earlier this week. “We measured the detour and it’s 8.9 miles one way. With the cost of fuel, it would soon add up.”
As a solution, the Watsons have placed a vehicle on the other side of the closed bridge. They simply walk across the bridge from one side of their property to the vehicle and then drive to the fields to feed their cattle. They return to the bridge, park and lock the vehicle and head back to the farm.
Their alternative would be to drive along Peppers Ferry Road to Max Meadows. They would then turn onto Ramsey Mountain Road by the Max Meadows Post Office and continue to Locust Hill Road which connects with Peppers Ferry Road in Gunton Park on the other side of the bridge.
Olin Armentrout, who lives on the Max Meadows side of the closed bridge, faces a similar problem. He and his son Mark recently moved 30 head of cattle to farmland he owns on the other side of the bridge.
“There’s plenty of pasture land there for cattle grazing and a good creek runs through it,” Armentrout said. “We’d planned to keep the cattle there through March when they start calving. We can’t do that now because of the long trip around to get there.”
Armentrout was an early proponent of replacing and rerouting the one-lane bridge which Norfolk Southern Railroad built over a set of tracks in 1941. He had observed overweight vehicles crossing the deteriorating bridges for years.
In 2006, VDOT reduced the weight limit on the bridge. It limited the use by trucks to three tons and multi-axle vehicles to four tons.
“It’s been an accident waiting to happen for years,” Armentrout stated. “I’m glad it’s down before it fell with people.”
According to Jim Phipps, director of transportation and facilities for Wythe County Schools, school buses have not used the bridge in four years. The buses continue the detour to pick up 25 youth from that community.
“The kids probably get home 10 to 15 minutes later than before,” Phipps reported. “It costs us more fuel to transport them but we can’t take the risk.”
Virginia Department of Transportation Resident Engineer Matthew Cox said Monday a private consulting firm for VDOT’s district office inspected the bridge last Saturday. Acting on the advice of the inspectors, he stated, VDOT decided to close the bridge Sunday morning because of “advanced deterioration.”
“Sunday morning we put up concrete barriers,” Cox said. “It was the bridge engineer’s call.”
Calling the bridge replacement “the top priority in Wythe County’s six-year plan,” Cox said VDOT plans to advertise for bids next spring. Construction, he noted, will be scheduled to being next summer.
“I feel pretty good about funding for it,” Cox commented.
According to him, the new bridge will be two-laned. It will be located at the current site.
Norfolk Southern transferred the bridge to VDOT several years ago.
“What gets me is that VDOT knew the bridge was in bad shape for a long time,” Watson stated. “I don’t know why they didn’t do something about it before now.”
Wayne Quesenberry can be reached at 228-6611 or .