Published Sunday, December 21, 2008

Old Chattahoochee bridge almost gone

By Sarah Fay Campbell

The Times-Herald

Soon, the old concrete and steel bridge over the Chattahoochee River at Highway 16 West near Whitesburg will be nothing more than a memory.

Unlike the original river bridge, the remains of which can be seen upriver from the current one, this bridge will be removed completely.

Crews from Rhea Contracting have nearly completed the removal. The structure was taken down piece by piece. The steel I-beams were taken away by trucks to be salvaged.

Now, all that remains of the old bridge are the concrete pillars sunk deep into the river bed.

Barges will be "staged" around each of the pillars to catch any debris when the removal begins, said Karen Higgins, project manager for the Georgia Department of Transportation.

Rhea crews will begin sawing off the pillars a section at a time until they reach the water line, Higgins said. Then, a subcontractor will be brought in to go underwater and cut the pillars off at the "mud line."

Last week, crews were hard at work removing debris and pillars from the Coweta side of the river bank, and removing pavement from the old road bed on the Carroll County side. Once all of the pavement is removed, the road bed will be graded to ensure good drainage, and grass will be planted, Higgins said.

The final phase of the nearly $6 million project will be grading and paving a new access drive to the boat ramp, and removing all of the old road bed on the Coweta side.

Current users of the boat ramp have had to negotiate a somewhat treacherous maze of orange barrels to access the old road, and then the boat ramp and parking lot.

The bridge replacement project, which began in mid-July of 2007 should be entirely complete by the end of January -- three months ahead of schedule.

"This has been a very, very good contractor to work with," Higgins said of Rhea.