Bridge won’t be closed for final repairs

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By Dan King

When the Church Street Bridge was closed last year, Granville businesses and commuters suffered. This year that won’t be the case.

As final repairs are made to the bridge during the construction season, the work will not require the bridge to be fully closed to traffic.

“We did a lot of the heavy lifting last year,” said Washington County Public Works Superintendent Steve Haskins. “Most of the work (this year) is under the bridge. We’ve got some work to do on the arch over the river and we have to fix the wall on the park side.”

The work, Haskins said, will only require the bridge to be under “controlled traffic,” most likely single-lane traffic, during work hours. The bridge will be reopened to full two-lane traffic at night, when work is not being done. Haskins said there will most likely be a flagger directing traffic when work is being done on the bridge.

“That was quite a time and quite a project last year, but it definitely needed to be done,” Haskins added. “I’m sure the people of Granville will be happy (that the bridge isn’t closed this year).”

That happiness will be amplified for businesses located on Church Street, especially American Hardware, which, because of its proximity to the bridge, saw a loss in business last year.

“I’m happy to hear it’s not closing again,” said co-owner Kyle Hunter. “Hopefully this year it won’t impact business.”

Hunter said he was assured by Granville Supervisor Matt Hicks and Salem Supervisor Seth Pitts, the chairman of the public works committee, that this year’s work would be “minor repairs and that it wouldn’t last too long.”

American Hardware co-owner Dave Linendoll said that during the work last year the company had about 100 fewer customers per week. The decrease translated to a loss of about 20 percent of business per week, he said.

The bridge work last year ran from May until November. Haskins said he is unsure when this year’s project will begin and how long it will take.

“I can’t give you a hard date right now,” he said.

The county has two four-man bridge crews, one of which was fully dedicated to the Church Street Bridge project last year. The Church Street Bridge project is considered a rehabilitation project, with an estimated cost of $450,000. Initially, a replacement bridge was planned, but when federal funding was not received, that idea was nixed. A replacement bridge was estimated to cost nearly $4 million.