COLUMBIANA CO. Historical bridge to be reassembled

Once this job is done, the county will eye restoration of another bridge.
By NORMAN LEIGH
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
SALEM -- Efforts to restore a historical covered bridge are expected to take a big step forward next week when crews begin reassembling the span at its Salem Township site.
Months ago, workers dismantled the 1876 bridge and began rebuilding it at a shop in Alliance. The job included fashioning new bridge timbers from sturdy white oak lumber.
On Monday, crews are to return to the bridge site, just off Eagleton Road, and start putting together the timbers, which are fastened with joints and pins.
That task will take about a week. The bridge's assembled frame then will be hoisted aloft with a crane and placed on the bridge abutments.
It will take about another month to install bridge decking, a roof and sides to the structure, Bob Durbin, assistant Columbiana County engineer, explained Thursday.
That will complete the chore of rebuilding the 66-foot-long bridge, which began in the spring.
W.M. Brode Co. of Newcomerstown is the general contractor for the $295,000 job.
The project is being funded with about $50,000 in county road and bridge money and from state and federal grants.
Known officially as the Teegarden Centennial Covered Bridge, the span takes its name from the community that once thrived near its location and from the fact that it was constructed during the centennial anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
Time and vandals had ravaged the structure, necessitating its rebuilding.
The bridge crosses the Middle Fork of Little Beaver Creek and is open only to pedestrian traffic.
Other plans
County officials are seeking a state grant to undertake a nearly $109,000 project to pave a parking lot adjoining the bridge, to erect a stone wall around the lot, and to build a path from the bridge to a hike-bike trail about 100 yards from the span.
In the next few years, the county wants to rebuild another of its historic covered spans, the McClellan Road Bridge, Durbin said.
The McClellan bridge is a 50-foot-long structure built in 1871. It stretches across the West Fork of Little Beaver Creek at a point off Trinity Bridge Road in Center Township.
leigh@vindy.com