Bridge project makes progress but may face delays

Published 5:15 am Thursday, January 12, 2017

Star Photo/Abby Morris-Frye  Workers pour concrete on Wednesday for a parapet railing on the Rittertown Bridge.

Star Photo/Abby Morris-Frye
Workers pour concrete on Wednesday for a parapet railing on the Rittertown Bridge.

Work is progressing to reconstruct a bridge on Rittertown Road in the Brown’s Branch area of Hampton.
On Wednesday, the work crew was pouring concrete to form the final parapet railing for the bridge.
“They’re doing a real good job on the bridge,” Carter County Road Superintendant Roger Colbaugh said.
The bridge abutments are done as is the bridge deck, Colbaugh said. One side parapet railing is already complete and the crew was working Wednesday to complete the railing for the other side.
“As far as the bridge they are about done but they have to build the approaches,” Colbaugh said.
Rebuilding the approaches entails repairing any section of the road damaged by the construction and paving the route onto and off of the bridge. The paving will be what slows the project down, Colbaugh said, because asphalt plants have already shut down for the winter months.
“Right now it will probably be the last of February before we can get asphalt,” Colbaugh said. “The hold up right now is going to be getting the right materials for the job.”
As the Rittertown Bridge work winds down waiting for materials, Colbaugh said his department is already working on the county’s next bridge project.
“We’re moving ahead with the design and permits for the Main Street Bridge in Roan Mountain,” Colbaugh said. “The design is done and they are working on getting the permits.”
Once the permit process is complete, Colbaugh said the project will be ready for the next stage, which is letting the project out for bid.
“We’re finally getting some of these state aid bridges underway,” Colbaugh said. “Counting the Main Street Bridge we have five bridges we are working on with state aid.”
While the Rittertown Bridge is a beam bridge with two abutments, Colbaugh said the remainder of the bridges in the state aid project are classified as “box bridges.”
“It’s sort of like a box culvert but bigger and stronger,” Colbaugh said.
In order for a structure to be classified as a bridge rather than a culvert under state standards through the Tennessee Department of Transportation, Colbaugh said it must have a minimum 20-foot span of travel distance.
“To get funding from TDOT it has to have that 20-foot span,” Colbaugh said, adding the bridge is also required to undergo a state inspection every two years.

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