Work is under way to try to stabilize the Grange City Covered Bridge in Fleming County, officials said Monday.
D9 structures crews filled sandbags in the morning, which will be used to shore the damaged bridge abutment. On Tuesday, Arnold Graton and company will install a steel beam underneath the bridge itself and tie it to an anchor to help prevent the bridge from slipping further off its foundation. That’s phase one.
Arnold Graton of Arnold M. Graton Associates of New Hampshire has been instrumental in the restoration of some of the other historic covered bridges in the commonwealth, including the Goddard Covered Bridge, consulted earlier this month with Kentucky Transportation Cabinet Engineers on how to rescue the bridge from collapse.
In late May, high water and heavy rains caused Fox Creek to overflow its banks, damaging the historic 1860s covered bridge, which spans the creek adjacent to Kentucky 111 just north of Grange City.
Additional crane work needed to stabilize the bridge will close Kentucky 111 on Wednesday in Fleming County, according to Kentucky Transportation Cabinet spoeksperson Allen Blair.
Beginning about 9 a.m., state highway crews will barricade Kentuck 111 at the intersection of Kentucky 158 in Hillsboro and at Grange City. Only local traffic will be allowed past barricades, and Kentucky 111 will be closed to all traffic at the Fox Creek bridge where a crane will be set to continue stabilization efforts on the Grange City Covered Bridge.
Work should be complete by 4 p.m., at which time Kentucky 111 will reopen.
During the road closure, all through traffic that uses Kentucky 111 will need to detour using Kentucky 158, Kentucky 32, U.S. 60, Kentucky 11 or I-64 to connect between the Owingsville and Flemingsburg areas.
Phase two comes later this year after special-ordered steel beams arrive, and they’re tied to the bridge.
The bridge, located in the Grange City community south of Hillsboro, is an 86-foot-long Burr truss design built between 1865 and 1870. The bridge was closed to traffic in 1968, and placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.
It’s one of about a dozen covered bridges still standing in the state, and one of three in Fleming County – known to tourists as “The Covered Bridge Capital of Kentucky.”