FORT PAYNE, Ala. – A $2.7 million bridge replacement project will close part of U.S. Highway 11 in DeKalb County, Alabama, and force through traffic to detour onto Interstate 59 until fall, but the work’s start date has been delayed because of weather.
The project, initially set to begin Monday, will replace the bridge over Dry Creek near the Sulphur Springs community, about one mile south of the Highway 11 intersection with County Road 140, according to Alabama Department of Transportation spokesman Seth Burkett.
The bridge is being replaced because of its age, Burkett said last week. Pelham, Alabama-based The Bridge Builders of Alabama is the contractor on the project, according to ALDOT. The old bridge will be demolished and the new one will be built on the same footprint over Dry Creek.
Staff photo by Ben Benton / A car heads south on U.S. Highway 11 in DeKalb County, Ala., crossing a bridge over Dry Creek that has been targeted for replacement. Heavy rains, which have recently forced temporary closures on the highway at raging Dry Creek, have delayed the start of the project which had been set for Monday.“The plan was to relocate a water line first, beginning a couple of weeks leading up to the closure, as the road closure was not necessary for the water line relocation,” Burkett said of initial plans. “But the contractor has not been able to begin that work due to the weather. To avoid unnecessary inconvenience to the public, the road closure is being pushed back.”
A new start date will be announced “in the near future,” Burkett said, but that will depend on drier weather.
“The bridge was constructed in 1928 and is functionally obsolete in that the bridge roadway and/or approaches are too narrow,” Burkett said via email of the old span. “The new bridge will be longer and wider than the old one.”
The current bridge is 114 feet long, 24 feet wide, compared with the new bridge’s dimensions, 175 feet long with a 44-foot-wide roadway, Burkett said.
Highway 11 is a two-lane, two-way road through that part of DeKalb County, and the detour planned to take motorists around the work only adds about a mile to the length to travel, which is about 10 miles.
Despite being a major U.S. highway, the bridge is no longer in heavy use.
Burkett said a 2018 traffic count on the stretch of Highway 11 tallied 488 vehicles a day.
The project cuts off one direction of travel for neighbors of the bridge project, but DeKalb County Ambulance Service executive director Cheryl Turner said it “won’t affect us at all” when it comes to ambulance calls.
Turner said DeKalb ambulances already use Interstate 59 to respond to the Sulphur Springs area because it’s the faster route. The area usually has a low volume of calls, she said.
Turner said the old bridge is overdue for work.
“It’s been in need of repairs for many, many years,” Turner said. “We’re glad to see the progress.”
Other emergency services will be able to take the interstate, too, according to Austin Reed, DeKalb County’s geospatial information manager. He checked county GIS maps to see how county agencies are positioned to answer calls in the area.
Staff photo by Ben Benton / Rain-swollen Dry Creek can be seen through a crack on a bridge on U.S. Highway 11 in DeKalb County, Alabama, targeted for replacement in a project that has been delayed by recent heavy rains.“It shouldn’t make any impact on response at all,” Reed said. Emergency officials can use “authorized vehicle only” access roads on the interstate median as shortcuts when needed, he said.
Reed said Hammondville’s fire department is the primary agency responsible for calls in the area and is positioned to easily take either route, depending on which side of the bridge work a call originates.
Until fall, motorists traveling in both directions will be detoured to I-59 via Alabama Highway 117 at Hammondville and DeKalb County Road 140 at Sulphur Springs, according to ALDOT.
Contact Ben Benton at bbenton@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6569. Follow him on Twitter @BenBenton or at www.facebook.com/benbenton1.
Rain-swollen Dry Creek can be seen through a crack on a bridge on U.S. Highway 11 in DeKalb County, Ala., targeted for replacement in a project that has been delayed by recent heavy rains.