Is the Right Bridge Getting Federal Stimulus Dollars?

Construction is set to begin at the end of the month on two local bridge repair projects funded by the economic stimulus package.  The Tennessee Department of Transportation will award the contracts to the lowest bidder for a bridge each in Hawkins and Carter counties. 

While the Hawkins County Road Superintendent says he is pleased to receive funds to repair the Okolona Road bridge, he thinks the Longs Bend Road needs attention first.  “The concrete is deteriorating, the steel is rusting, it’s just in bad need of repair,“ said Lowell Bear, the county’s Road Superintendent.

Without money from the stimulus, Bean said his budget does not have enough money to repair the Longs Bend bridge.  However, it does have enough money to repair the Okolona bridge, and that is what has him so upset.  Receiving the funds to repair Longs Bend would save the county a lot of money.  Also, Bean says work on the Okolona project would last a year at most, while the Longs Bend bridge could take up to three years, creating many more jobs.

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