After a months-long detour, travelers on Big Rock Road now have a shiny new bridge over Pine Creek. The bridge was officially opened last week with a ribbon cutting ceremony.

Construction began in May with a price tag of $1,554,000 but no local tax dollars were needed to fund the project. Funds from the state’s IMPROVE Act high priority bridge replacement program were used.

“Not long after I took office in 2018, they (state) wanted me to spend about $1.1 million to replace a bridge over old Dry Creek Road near Dowelltown but I felt like that was a waste of money because there is no traffic on that portion of Dry Creek Road,” Hale explained.

“Years ago, before I took office, I built an access road through there for then Road Supervisor Kenny Edge, which tied back into Highway 70 from Old Dry Creek Road, plus farther down there was another access road, so this bridge really no longer served a purpose. I got with my engineer, and we asked the state to let us redirect the money earmarked for the Dry Creek Road Bridge to the Big Rock Road bridge over Pine Creek because it too was designated by the state as a high priority bridge with an efficiency rating of 51.1% but it has much more traffic on it than the Dry Creek Bridge,” said Hale.

At first, Hale said the state only wanted to make repairs to the Big Rock Road Bridge instead of an outright replacement. “They (state) had sent me something saying they wanted me to put a new floor in it and rails on it but that was going to cost about $800,000 and it would still have had the old under structure. I couldn’t see doing a patch job when later it would have had to be torn out again with a new under structure put in. It was about two years in the making but they (state) eventually let me swap bridges in the program,” said Hale.

Hale said the new two-lane bridge, with a weight limit of 40 tons, has a state rated life expectancy of 75 to 100 years. The bridge it replaced had a weight limit of just eight tons.