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Last updated on Wednesday, August 26, 2015
(BEDFORD) - Lawrence County Highway Supervisor David Holmes reported to the commissioners Tuesday that new weight limits on three county bridges.
Bridge 25 on Leatherwood Road over Leatherwood Creek is now limited to 18 tons. Bridge 66 on Tunnelton Denniston Road over Guthrie Creek and Bridge 197 on Jefferson Street over Leatherwood Creek is now limited to 16 tons. Bridge 89 on Mount Pleasant Road should be open by Friday.
Crews will be paving the approachment on erecting guardrails today.
Holmes warned motorists to not use the bridge until it is complete.
"Several people have been removing the barricades and driving on the uncured deck," Holmes says. We replaced them but then someone just destroyed the barricades. I know people are impatient but if they go over the sides of that bridge they are they will drown as high as Salt Creek is right now."
Crews also erected guardrails along Sieboldt Quarry and Harrodsburg roads after Perry Township Volunteer Fire Department Chief Max Peters told the Lawrence County Commissioners at an earlier meeting that in the last year more than 8 vehicles have become inverted after crashing at that location.
"There is a 5-foot drop on the north side of the road and a 6-foot drop on the south side," Peters says. "Any vehicle that hits those metal culverts is going to end up on its side or roof."
The commissioners asked Lawrence County Highway Superintendent David Holmes last meeting to make it a priority into placing guardrails in that location which he did.
Now the commissioners will look into possibly widening the road that leads to the Lawrence County Recreation Park.
"I will need to talk to the landowners and see what we can get done," Holmes says. "It can only be widened on the north side of the road."
Peters says that at times more than 20,000 visitors go to the park on any given motorcross race day.
"This is only a half a mile stretch of road off Sieboldt Quarry Road, but it is a dangerous situation," Peters said at an earlier meeting. "Two semis, one coming and one going, cannot pass on that roadway and it is difficult to get an ambulance back there. I have had to pull several of the semi's out of the ditches during any event."
Peters added that the racing community brings in thousands of dollars to the community and that is why the commissioners want to discuss the issue with the Lawrence County Growth Council who might partner with the county to improve getting to and from the recreation park.
The commissioners also opened bids for salt. Three companies submitted no bids. Only Morton Salt submitted a bid for $71 a ton. The commissioners took the bid under advisement.
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