Elkin officials worry bridge cracking, like above, could pose a liability issue for town.
“I would like to keep a portion of the bridge in place, at least the part that spans across Main Street. I understand that the span across the river, where the trellises are, is falling and needs to be removed. But removing such a large structure, which is as long as the Empire State building is tall, will leave a gaping hole in our landscape,” said downtown business owner and Elkin Town Commissioner Cicely McCulloch.
“I haven’t been on the town board (of commissioners), long enough to know the complete history behind why the bridge wasn’t trying to be saved,” she said.
The N. C. Department of Transportation condemned and closed the bridge for vehicular traffic several years ago after chunks of concrete fell from the span. Bids are to be opened in mid-June for its demolition of the bridge and plans are now for it to be razed in July 2010.
“We’ve, merchants and interested parties, have been talking about this since the bridge was condemned and closed,” said Phillip Lyles, who owns the Yadkin Valley General Store, located in the shadow of the historic structure.
“We’ve been trying to press the town of Elkin to save part of it,” said Lyles, who favors saving at least a portion of the span.
“Saving the span from Main Street to Market Street would allow residents to continue to use it as a walking trail, and it could also be used for festivals. What people don’t realize is the bridge is on the National Registry for Historic bridges. The plaque that‘s supposed to be on the bridge is up at the town hall.”
Larry Irwin, owner of Elk Pharmacy and life-long resident of Elkin expressed his desire to ask the board to at least revisit the issue.
“The downtown merchant’s association is in favor of trying to get the town board to look at saving at least a portion of the bridge,” Irwin said. “We’d like to save the portion across Main Street.”
Lloyd Payne, Elkin’s town manager said that the town has visited the issue of retaining the bridge several times, but due to the liability the town would incur, was forced to relinquish any plans to retain any portion of it.
“The N. C. DOT owns the bridge, and in its contract specifies that the entire bridge will be demolished,” Payne said. “When they first condemned the bridge, the town board discussed taking over the bridge. DOT offered to give the towns of Elkin and Jonesville the funds they would have used to demolish the bridge.
“After looking at the cost to maintain the bridge, and do repairs to it as it needed then, the money would not have lasted more than a couple of years. Also, one of the biggest concerns was and remains that we would have a structure we would not be able to insure. This would create a great liability for the town. If someone was struck and killed by a piece of falling concrete, it could wipe out the general fund. The general public, the taxpayers would then have the burden of replacing those funds on their backs.”
Llyes said he, along with several others would like to see the group CACHE become more involved in the effort to save at least a portion of the bridge.
“I don’t know how feasible trying to save even a portion of the bridge would be,” Payne said. “The budget is tight as it is and any additional funding would have to come from the taxpayers. I don’t believe it would be a very good use of public funds.
“If we took ownership of the bridge from DOT, we would own something that is not only in great need of repair, but something we could not insure. We would have the initial dollars from the DOT, but when the dollars from DOT are used and the town’s budget continued to deteriorate, the town would probably have to float a bond for additional dollars and this would have to be repaid by the taxpayers.
“The potential liability to the taxpayers is my concern,” Payne said.
Post a Comment
