Construction on the new Rittertown Bridge is now complete with only minor work needed to finish the total project.
“We’ve got the bridge finished,” said Carter County Road Superintendent Roger Colbaugh. “All they’ve got to do is paint it, and they are supposed to do that this week.”
“As soon as they get it painted we’ll be taking the detour signs down,” Colbaugh added. “You can drive across it now.”
The project finished on time and under budget according to Colbaugh, who added there were no problems encountered during construction.
“One thing that helped them was the mild winter we had,” Colbaugh said. “If we’d had bad weather they wouldn’t have had it done by now.”
The majority of the construction was complete in mid-January with work crews waiting on supplies to finish the approaches to the bridge. At that time, Colbaugh anticipated that it would be the end of February before asphalt would be available for the project because asphalt plants shut down during the cold-weather months.
Crews installed guardrails and were able to pave the approaches for the bridge thanks to warmer weather that allowed for the crew to complete the needed paving, Colbaugh said on Monday. “It was warm enough for the asphalt plants to open back up,” Colbaugh said.
The Carter County Highway Department contracted with the Simpson Bridge Company, based out of Cleveland, Tenn., for the bridge construction.
“They are well known in the area to people who are in that line of business,” Colbaugh said. “They are a real good bridge company.”
Local company Summers-Taylor served as the subcontractor for the paving work.
Colbaugh said he was pleased with the work by both Simpson Bridge Company and Summers-Taylor in completing the bridge project.
In January, members of the Carter County Commission voted to name the bridge in memory of Pvt. Phillip Tolley, who was killed in action during World War II. Tolley was a resident of the Browns Branch community where the bridge is located.
Browns Branch Road resident Juanita Miller presented a request to the Carter County Highway Committee to name the bridge in honor of Tolley, and more than 40 members of the community signed a petition supporting her request. The committee approved the designation and forwarded the request on to the full Commission, which in turn also approved the measure.