Delaware Bend Bridge

 work to continue into 2004

      Many weather delays on The Bend Road bridge replacement will keep the project from being completed this year. Although considerable progress has been made in laying the bridge's foundation, work has been suspended for the winter and will resume next spring with completion in 2004.

      The bridge spans the Maumee River just north of U.S. 24 and was to have been replaced by Oct. 31 by Fort Defiance Construction. The main reason for the delay is that since the project began in April, Fort Defiance has had several different interruptions due to high water.

      "They had so many times when the river was up when they couldn't possibly have worked," said Gaylon Davis, County Engineer "The contractor has, been diligent." The rain that caused the high waters also made earth moving a difficult task, Davis added. When the project began last spring, one of the first tasks was removing the old bridge. That was accomplished last spring, and the new structure is being built just to the west of where the old bridge set. 

       The new bridge's three concrete piers in the Maumee as well as the concrete abutments on the north and south approaches are nearly completed. Fort Defiance crews had planned to start setting bridge deck beams across the piers before wrapping up, but again were put off due to the weather and high water. This would have allowed the contractor to begin form work in preparation of pouring the concrete deck next spring.

      The construction crews have been building up The Bend Road north of  the bridge. In years past, the road has been damaged many times by floodwaters.  But the road has been raised as much as nine feet north of the bridge and up to four feet south of it. The public access that was located south east of the old bridge has been removed.

      The dirt for this build up has come from a large barrow pit constructed west of the work site, on Rolland Rd. According to County Engineer’s office, the pit covers three acres and is at least 15 feet deep. Following the project's conclusion, the pit is expected to be filled with water and main­tained by the landowner as a pond, officials said.

      The old bridge road curved twice as it approached the bridge from the north, then the one lane bridge had to be crossed, and then another sharp turn. The new alignment of the bridge will allow motorists to drive in a straight line as they approach the structure from either direction, and keep it out of floodwaters.

      The project contract price is $1,866,000 with federal money paying for the construction cost.