County bridge repairs expected to start today

By By Steve Gillespie / staff writer
June 17, 2003
Replacement of the Liberty Church Road Bridge is scheduled to begin today and will soon be followed by replacement of bridges on Cotton Gin Road and Allen Swamp Road.
The Lauderdale County Board of Supervisors accepted bids Monday for emergency replacement of the bridges to be done by Jordan Crane Service of Taylorsville as recommended by county engineer Neal Carson.
Originally, Carson's work crews were going to replace the Liberty Church Road Bridge. Bids for the materials were taken earlier this year and bought for about $30,000.
But Carson said the county decided to contract the work out since his crews are still faced with repairs and cleanup work due to spring floods.
Since the materials are already here, the Liberty Church Road Bridge will be replaced first. The labor for the work was quoted at $59,109.
The bids for labor and materials for Allen Swamp Road Bridge totaled $286,323. The bid for Cotton Gin Road Bridge totaled $103,920. Carson said work will begin on those bridges when materials arrive.
He said work on Allen Swamp Road will probably begin last because aside from waiting for materials for the project, the county also is waiting on an order to proceed with the work from the state because it is a State Aid project.
The Cotton Gin Road project will be funded through the Federal Emergency Management Agency because it was damaged by flooding in April. Both the Liberty Church Road and Allen Swamp Road bridges were shut down because they were declared unsafe before the April floods.
Supervisors also accepted Carson's recommendations for the purchase of new equipment.
The county will buy two motor graders from Puckett Machinery Co. for $164,638 each; two new tractor trucks, one for $73,794 and one for $80,994; a dump trailer from Waters Truck &Tractor Co. Inc. for $19,860; and five 15-foot rotary cutters from Freeman Tractor Co. for $8,400 each.