When bridge inspections were first mandated by Congress over 50 years ago, 72% of the Jefferson County bridges were found to be incapable of carrying the legal weight limit. That is 129 of the county’s 180 bridges. Five of those bridges were closed immediately and low-weight limits were placed on the others. The disruption to the traffic flow on the county’s 900 miles of roads was tremendous. Marketing grain and livestock was a problem in an agricultural county as well as school buses and mail routes had to be rerouted and emergency vehicles, including fire trucks, could not cross many of the bridges. There were 7,000 fewer residents in the county at that time, but nevertheless a high percentage were daily commuters to jobs in neighboring towns and cities.
Source: JeffCountyNews
