Community Corner

UPDATE: Clark's Madison Hill Road Bridge Repair Could Take Months

The county has advised the township that further investigation has shown the damage to the bridge is more extensive than originally thought.

Tom Mineo, director of engineering for Union County, said that crews were out on Wednesday to close the road and put up barriers. The repairs that were planned to take weeks are now potentially months in the making because further investigation has shown the damage is more extensive than originally thought.

Mineo said the sinkhole is 9 feet deep, 10 feet wide and 23 feet long and located right behind the abutment. From the surface, the hole looks small, but underneath the bridge is where a large chunk is missing. Crews filled the sinkhole on Wednesday with concrete and roadfill but Mineo said the bridge's footings could be resting on water alone after dirt washed out from underneath during the storm. If that's the case, the structural integrity of the bridge could be compromised further and extensive repairs would need to be made.


"We have to send a diver down to check the water underneath," Mineo said Thursday afternoon, adding that the county is currently looking for a diver to assess the damage.

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"The concern is what you can't see," Mineo added. "We might have to pump concrete down there (beneath the bridge's footings), which would mean controlling water with temporary dams."

That's a process that could take months.

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Mineo said the best case scenario is that the damage is only limited to half the bridge. If that's true, the county intends on making the necessary repairs and reopening the bridge Oct. 15 with narrower lanes for traffic.

If the damage is more severe, the county will have to make extensive modifications to the bridge, which will likely delay reopening it for six to nine months, Mineo said.

Worst case scenario: the bridge has to be replaced — a process that could take 12 to 18  months, Mineo said.

"We won't know until a diver goes down there," he said. "It was a big flood, a lot of water washed through and now the water is too deep, which is why we have to send a diver down there to evaluate the damage from below."

By the end of the month, Mineo said he expects to know if the county can reopen the bridge in October. The diver he is looking for is a trained engineer, who can evaluate the damage and structural integrity of the bridge.

Mineo said the county assesses all its bridges every two years using the divers. While the county doesn't have any divers of its own, Mineo said the state has a roster of independent contractors they can choose from.

Mineo anticipates the dive can be completed next week.

The Madison Hill Road bridge is the only one in Union County where structural damage exists because of the storm.


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