Posted: 11/23/04
New bridge, road by Schechís Mill done
By David Heiller
Argus News Editor
County Road 10 by Schechís Mill is open for business again.
The road had been closed between Sheldon and Highway 76 for about a month as workers made new approaches to a new continuous concrete slab bridge.
The new bridge over West Beaver Creek is about 150 feet south of the old one, which has now been removed as part of the $877,000 project.
With the new curves to the widened road and the new bridge, it hardly looks like the same place.
ìEven the locals canít hardly remember,î Houston County assistant engineer Doug Twite said with a laugh while looking over the work on November 17. ìItís a change.î
And a good change. The old bridge was narrow, and had a load limit of five tons. It was made in 1922 and moved from a now-forgotten location to a new home six miles west of Caledonia in 1954. ìIt was fatigued,î Twite said. ìThe beams were rusted out of it.î
There are no restrictions on the new bridge. The new road is wider and has much better alignment, with 50 mile-per-hour curves.
ìIt should be safer, but that all depends on the drivers out there,î county engineer Allen Henke said.
Twite estimated that 60,000 yards of material were moved for the project. Trucks were dumping gravel on it as he watched last Wednesday. Graders were smoothing it out, and a water truck was adding water to get compaction on the material, and a steel-wheeled roller was firming it up.
The detour signs were taken down on November 19. The road will be paved next spring.
Ivan Krugmire owns Schechís Mill, a local landmark that still mills flour using water power from Beaver Creek.
He said the new bridge is fine, but he didnít think a new road was needed. He figured that happened because it was a federally-funded project.
ìThat other road was fine. There was nothing wrong with it,î he said. ìThere was a lot of things they didnít have to do. But now when they get it done, sure itís going to be good. I guess they can use the new road.î
Caledonia Argus
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507/724-3475
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