An Uncertain Span

People Are Working To Save Beloved Bridge In Danger Of Being Torn Down

PUCKETT’S HOLE, Va. – If a car crosses the Clinch River on the century-old bridge at Puckett’s Hole, another has to wait its turn.
This 11-foot-wide bridge on State Route 652 in rural Russell County accommodates only one-way traffic.
At present, just 75 cars a day travel across the 1889 structure, said Conrad Hill, the resident engineer at the Lebanon residency of the Virginia Department of Transportation.
School buses can’t go there. “At this point, it is not capable of school buses running over it,” Hill said.
House trailers, too, cannot be transported over the small span, because one side of the bridge leads almost directly into a cliff, said William Monk, a Russell County resident and local schoolteacher who crosses the bridge several times a week.
So, in 2008, began a year-long project to construct a new bridge – a $1.6 million structure of concrete and steel. “The other bridge was outdated,” said Michelle Earl, spokeswoman for the Bristol district of the Virginia Department of Transportation.
Still, since 1997, folks around Puckett’s Hole had quietly assumed this old bridge would remain standing – even after the new one was built.
“We were under the impression that it was going to be staying there,” said Robert Keene, the Honaker-area representative on the Russell County Board of Supervisors.
Then, this spring, the 55-year-old Monk, a Honaker High School teacher, heard some news during a casual conversation with a construction worker: VDOT officials had slated the old bridge for destruction, as early as August, just as soon as the new bridge was complete.

‘PUT IT ON HOLD’
Plans to remove the old bridge have been in the works for about five years, Earl said.
“They knew a long time ago that they were going to tear this bridge down,” said Danny Brown, the chairman of the Russell County Board of Supervisors, “and we weren’t told that it didn’t make it. It was supposed to be a historic structure.”
Now, a small band of history-minded folks at the Honaker Heritage Museum are struggling to save the span.
“All we’re asking now is to put it on hold – and give us a chance to get the money up,” said Honaker resident Diane Fuller, who runs the Honaker Heritage Museum with town historian Kathleen Robinson Taylor.
“If we’re interested in saving our heritage and interested in our local history, for our own decency, we’ve got to save it,” Taylor, 88, said. “There’s no reason to tear it down.”
Support for the bridge extends to the county government.
“I personally would like to see the old bridge saved,” Brown said. “At one time, I was under the understanding that the bridge would be left because of its historic value.”

‘REMAIN IN PLACE’
In nearby Honaker, at the Honaker Heritage Museum, a stern-faced Diane Fuller clinched a copy of a report, issued by representatives of the Virginia Department of Transportation on Aug. 19, 1997 at a public hearing in Lebanon.
The reason for the public hearing was to unveil the new bridge alignment, Earl said. “The purpose was to explain the construction of the new bridge.”
Yet, Fuller said, there also seemed to be a promise from VDOT officials in 1997: A letter explaining the construction project states, “The existing bridge will remain in place for historical value.”
Brown, recalling that public hearing, said, “Evidently, they’ve gone back on what they’ve told us.”
Last month, during a comments portion of a Russell County Board of Supervisors meeting, Hill, the Lebanon residency engineer, responded to a question by Fuller: Hill said the old bridge was slated to be destroyed after completion of the new bridge.
“And you should have seen the look on the faces of the Board of Supervisors,” Fuller added.
“That was the first thing I had heard about it from ’97,” Brown said. “There should have been a hearing, and they should have made people aware of their intentions.”
Earl conceded that point.
“In hindsight, we should have communicated our intent more clearly,” Earl said, “and that is the reason we are talking with the Board of Supervisors and the museum about the bridge.”

‘FINANCIAL BURDEN’
It all comes down to money.
“There was apparently money to keep the bridge in place in 1997,” Earl said.
Now, Hill said, “It would cost much more to maintain than to tear it down and remove it.”
An annual bridge inspection would cost $10,000, Earl said, plus another initial $350,000 to make necessary repairs to the old bridge – including removing old lead paint and repainting the structure.
“From VDOT’s perspective, VDOT simply cannot take on the financial burden of renovating and maintaining a bridge that does not carry vehicle traffic,” Earl said. “And there’s just a lot of things that need to be done before it gets up to the standard even for pedestrian access.”
Still, that does not mean that the bridge must be torn down, Earl said.
“VDOT can offer the bridge to be saved. We can offer to give the bridge to the county for use as a pedestrian bridge, and we would also donate the right-of-way to the county,” Earl said. “This would mean the county would be responsible for renovating and maintaining the bridge.”
The county would have to come up with the funding to save the bridge, Hill said.
That is possible, Brown said, suggesting, “Maybe we can get some bailout funds.”
Right now, Russell County has a “string-tight” budget, Brown added. “But, still, we want to do what we can everywhere we can to turn over all the rocks that we can to save this structure. And, I think it’s worthy of saving.”

‘PROMOTE TOURISM’
This metal bridge – a Pratt Truss design, constructed by the Groton Bridge and Manufacturing Company – originally spanned the riverbanks at Blackford, a few miles upstream on the Clinch along what is now State Route 80.
When constructed, this bridge replaced a ferryboat operated by David Black, the man for whom Blackford was named.
“The bridge played an important part in the development of industries into the area by connecting both sides of the Clinch River,” Fuller said. “Puckett’s Hole had no bridge until the Blackford Bridge was moved to the area in 1946.”
Recently, a study of similar bridges across Virginia revealed that the construction style of the old bridge was too common to be considered a historic landmark, Earl said, and because it was moved, it has lost its historical significance.
But Brown, like Taylor and Fuller, considered the bridge’s move insignificant.
“It does have a lot of historical value for Russell County and the people of this area,” Brown said. “You’re trying to promote tourism, but here you’re trying to tear down something that people might want to come and look at.”

‘LOOK AT THE OPTIONS’
Several local residents have expressed interest in saving the bridge, Keene said.
Brown, meanwhile, just wants time.
“What I wanted to do was to ask ’em to declare moratorium for about five years – to make it inaccessible,” Brown said.
For five years?
“That was my proposal and I hope that they will be serious about that,” Brown said. “You ask for a lot, and, hopefully, you’ll get a little bit ... And, the way the economy is, I think, in five years, it will be better.”
Brown, like Taylor and Fuller, wants to study all alternatives to demolition.
“I definitely want to save it, if we can at all,” Brown said. “I’d like to look at the options at what can be done. Just saying, ‘I’m going to tear it down. There, it’s gone’ – that doesn’t leave you too many options ... Once something’s gone, there’s nothing you can do about it then.”