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Cut bridge shuts down Highway 69
The heavy duty saw cut right down the center of the concrete decked bridge for about 20 feet or so on its southern end. The mishap prompted the closing of the bridge and the highway, a busy artery between Coffeeville and Jackson. Wallace McAdory, maintenance engineer for the Alabama Department of Transportation in Grove Hill said the cut was about six inches deep, almost through the concrete decking of the bridge. Mobile Asphalt Company is paying for tearing out the damaged section of the long bridge and replacing it. McAdory said crews were on the scene Tuesday. The damaged section will have to be torn out and new concrete poured, he explained.
Because of Satilpa Creek, there is no nearby short cut for motorists traveling between Jackson and Coffeeville. McAdory said traffic that normally uses the highway is being detoured on U.S. Highways 43 and 84 through Grove Hill, a detour of about 40 to 50 miles. Some local residents use County Route 3 from Highway 84 east of Coffeeville through the Winn community to north Jackson, a shorter route, but McAdory said that isn't a stateauthorized detour. Jesse Gilmore lives on Highway 69 in Coffeeville. His elderly parents live just off the highway near Salitpa. The bridge is between the two. He said he tries to check on his parents regularly. "I guess I can go down there and park and walk across and let someone pick me up," he said. It is too far to drive the long detour to Jackson and back north to Salitpa, he said. A handful of school children who go to school in Coffeeville live south of the bridge but accommodations have been made for them. Highway 69 sees about 800- 850 vehicles a day. About 11 percent of those are trucks. Many trucks travel the route to the Boise paper mill in Jackson.
Closer to Coffeeville, the traffic count is higher at about 1,100, McAdory added.
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