TROTWOOD — Work can finally begin on a bridge in Montgomery County a year after crews closed it.
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It is the East Main Street Bridge drivers use to get into Trotwood.
News Center 7′s Taylor Robertson spoke Tuesday with the Montgomery County Engineer’s Office about the plan to repair the bridge and who is paying for it.
The engineer’s office just got approval for a project that will revamp that bridge.
Robertson says the bridge has been closed to the public for over a year.
“This particular bridge is not on piles, said Paul Gruner, Montgomery County Engineer. “So, when the soil is all washed out underneath, there’s nothing supporting that part of the bridge.”
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Images from Sky 7 show that part of the bridge is sinking in.
“We have erosion from the creek,” said Gruner. “It eroded underneath the abutment, so the pavement was starting to settle.”
He told Robertson it has been a problem his team has been made aware of since last June.
“That half of the bridge was pretty unstable, so we had to close it,” Gruner said.
The county engineer’s office began working on a contract to fix the unstable half of this bridge.
Gruner expects it to be back open this September.
“We have a consultant that’s on call,” he said. “We had them look at it and make some recommendations and then proceed to prepare, design a build package.”
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Robertson says county commissioners just approved $788,000 to go towards the project in a private meeting Tuesday afternoon.
“It’s coming from our road gasoline licensing fund,” said Gruner.
With how many people cross the bridge to get into Trotwood, it will be a big help to revamp it.
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