State officials reported recently they have scheduled the demise of the 80-year-old iconic image of downtown Elkin for the summer of 2009. Plans are for it to be gone by the end of that year.
Lyles is the owner of Yadkin Valley General Store, a downtown business. He is also a recent president of Downtown Elkin Inc., an organization started to promote business downtown.
Lyles was dubious recently when a state official told The Tribune they had heard little complaint about the demise of the bridge.
"I don't know who they have been talking to," Lyles said recently. "Do they not know that they received a petition with over 2,000 names on it." The petition opposes removal of the downtown bridge. "Don't they know they get a dozen calls a week."
Bridge supporters argue loss of a bridge in the immediate downtown area will change the business climate.
DOT closed the bridge two and a half years ago after an inspection showed damage to steel girders underneath the portion immediately over the Yadkin River. For several years before that the state agency had defined the bridge as "functionally obsolete."
That is a description used to indicate roads that are no longer adequate to carry the traffic they are subjected to. DOT suggests it would not recommend anything less than a four lane bridge to carry the traffic.
He questions whether it is obsolete for Elkin's use. "It is what we need," Lyles said of the two-lane Hugh Chatham bridge. "We need something that crosses the flood plain. It does that. We need something that crosses the railroad. It does that." Lyles said. "It just needs to be repaired.
He understands that will cost something. Tearing it down will also cost something, he said. DOT predicts demolition will cost $25 million
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