In late July of last year, the Christian County Fiscal Court began its cost exploration of replacing the timber Davis Road Bridge near Mannington and just off US 41 — which had been deemed unsafe and closed by the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, leaving a handful of families seeking alternative routes.
At that time, Judge-Executive Steve Tribble and his magistrates were hoping to use discretionary funds totaling $500,000 to replace the bridge, seeking the services of Frankfort’s HMB Professional Engineering for the work.
As it turns out, that’s not going to cut it.
During Tuesday’s fiscal court meeting, Tribble and County Treasurer Walter Cummings alerted dignitaries the “high end” of replacing the bridge would cost the county close to $1.2 million. And with only $500,000 in discretionary coming from the KYTC, that would leave the county coffers with a $700,000 bill to foot.
Following some discussions within the county’s road committee and some exploration of the site with folks such as Randy Graham and Jim Fleming, Tribble told the court a new plan has been devised: build a connector between US 41 N and Davis Road north of the bridge — and bypass the CSX railway altogether.
As such, the fiscal court unanimously agreed to a memorandum allowing Tribble to sign into an agreement with the KYTC for the discretionary funding.
And that was step one. Step two: seek the approval of the three landowners for the easement and construction access to build the road. County Attorney John Soyars said that’s something that’s been in the works for some time.
Cummings said Fleming was instrumental in helping with landowner negotiations. And the fiscal court unanimously approved the payments of $10,000 to each of those parcel owners for right-of-way.
Tribble said there had been a number of discussions in the last few months with CSX officials about the possibility of a joint agreement to replace the bridge. Tribble said the company has long forsaken the bridge as part of its inventory, leaving it basically in Christian County’s hands.
It’s a beautiful local timepiece that simply cannot function for transportation purposes. One funny suggestion brought a laugh.
Once KYTC returns its approval, work with engineers can resume.
