Repairs on a historic bridge in Roan Mountain are nearly complete.
The steel bridge located on Old Railroad Grade Road was closed in September 2015 after an inspection by the state declared the bridge unsound due to the deterioration of the bridge deck.
Carter County Road Superintendent Roger Colbaugh said he is pleased with how quickly the bridge repairs have taken place. Workers finished installing the new bridge deck panels on Saturday and on Tuesday a crew was on site installing guardrail posts for the bridge.
“We’re hoping that by Thursday we can get the epoxy grout in the joints between the deck panels,” Colbaugh said.
Once the epoxy grout and the guardrails are installed, Colbaugh said the bridge would be ready for inspection by the state, which he feels could take place very quickly once the work is completed.
“If we keep getting weather like we’ve been getting, hopefully we can get that bridge opened back up sometime next week,” he said.
The bridge had a low weight rating prior to the repairs due to the age and condition of the bridge deck. With the new repairs, Colbaugh believes the state will give the bridge a higher rating.
Once the inspection is complete, Colbaugh said the bridge will be reopened for traffic to drive across the concrete decking. After the weather warms up in the Spring, the concrete deck will be covered with asphalt, he said.
“That is a good deck and a good bridge,” he said. “It was designed to carry the railroad traffic so it’s probably one of the strongest bridges open to motor vehicle traffic in the state.”
The old steel bridge was constructed in 1889 by the Keystone Bridge Co. as part of the line for the East Tennessee and Western North Carolina Railroad, which is more commonly know by its nickname of “Tweetsie.” The bridge is one of several that crossed the Doe River as the rail line wound its way from Elizabethton through Roan Mountain and on to the mines in Cranberry, N.C.
The structural overhead steel bridge is 111 feet long and 9 feet wide.
Old Railroad Grade Road was constructed on the bed that once housed the rails for the narrow-gauge train.
The order to close the bridge came from the Tennessee Department of Transportation following a routine bridge inspection.
“There were wood timbers underneath the bridge slab that had decayed and some of the timbers have fallen into the river below,” Colbaugh said in September following the closure order. “The concrete is crumbling in some places.”
“What makes it critical is the bridge deck itself; they are afraid it’s going to cave in,” he added. “There was one section that was so bad we put steel plates down.”
While there was no question that the bridge had to be closed, closing it created some additional problems. Because the bridge was at the dead end of the road, closing the bridge left some property owners without a way to access their property, effectively leaving them landlocked.
There are four homes located on that section of Old Railroad Grade Road, none of which are permanent residences, Colbaugh said in September.
The Highway Department considered a couple of options to temporary access to the properties, but ultimately, the department was able to make the repairs in a timely manner using pre-fabricated bridge decks.
Because of the bridge’s history and age, Colbaugh said he is seeking a historic designation for the bridge which would open up grant funding to assist with any future repairs or cosmetic work to the bridge.