News Releases

Ridge Road Open

Aug 06, 2008

Ridge Road Bridge opened after two-month closure

Huron County Engineer, Joe Kovach, announced yet another successful major bridge replacement project as Ridge Road was opened to traffic Tuesday afternoon. The Ribbon Cutting came just in time for the beginning of the Huron County Fair.

The Ridge Road Bridge replacement project began Wednesday, June 18th.  

R & I Construction of Tiffin, Ohio constructed the long awaited bridge replacement project. Located in Bronson Township, the new bridge cost just over $400,000. 

Located on Ridge Road, south of the City of Norwalk, the construction site was just north of South Norwalk Road. Most Norwalk motorists recognized the location as being immediately south of Norwood Avenue, or just south of the bridge over the city's route 20 by-pass.

Recognized as one of the county's busiest roadways, the project took months to coordinate according to Kovach." In addition to traffic considerations, there were a number of of utilities that needed to be relocated. We didn't want to begin the project prior to the end of Norwalk's school year", said the Engineer, noting the project's proximity to the local high school, " yet, we realized the bridge had to be open to traffic before the beginning of Huron County's Fair, beginning August 10th.”

Kovach admitted accomplishing the task required "significant cooperation from mother nature".

Aside from school traffic and County Fair Traffic, the County Engineer understood, the roadway as one of the county's primary employee passages. A travel conduit for Norwalk residents traveling to work in Willard and, for southern Huron County residents motoring north to jobs in Norwalk. Each utilizes the Ridge Road route going to and from work each day. " We know this bridge project would be an inconvenience," Kovach said," However, we are certain everyone will be pleased with the final effort”.

The County's engineers worked with Jeff Yoder of Poggemeyer Design Group's Bowling Green office to ensure the safety and preservation of the adjacent historic Inter-Urban, stone arch bridge. " The project had some very specific design challenges,” Yoder said. The county selected to incorporate as much of the existing stone arch roadway bridge into the new design as possible. " The design of the new bridge was different from most our usual, tear out everything and rebuild from scratch techniques", Kovach said,” This was not a one of our usual bridge construction projects."

"We wanted to keep our construction footprint as small as possible". The Engineer explained how the project incorporated the least destructive construction techniques possible. As an example, Kovach indicated the design called for the used of "drilled shafts" for the supporting columns of concrete and steel piling." Drilled shafts allow us to eliminate the heavy hammering usually associated with placement of steel piling", Kovach said." The last thing we want to do was to be hammering away on piling and watch the nearby stone arch crumble into a heap of stony rubble".

" At 32 feet wide the new bridge is considerably wider, and has a much higher load capacity", Kovach said. " We also wanted to take a bit of the kink out of the roadway". The bridge's new design will also be safer for the motoring public.

"Anyone traveling that stretch of roadway in the winter knows what a tight fit it can be to pass an oncoming snow plow. A 12 foot wide plow and a six foot wide pick up truck passing on the old structure could make for a memorable moment if one wasn't real careful " with the County Engineer indicating the additional width will go a long way towards making the roadway safer for farm equipment, school busses and snow plows.

Funding for the project comes, in part, was provided via a grant from the Ohio Public Works Commission, with the county's bridge building budget pitching in "roughly half of the remaining cost of the project ", according to Kovach.

No stranger to time sensitive projects on busy routes leading into Norwalk, R&I Construction was the lowest of seven bidders on the Ridge Road project.  The Tiffin based contractor previously completed a bridge on Washington Road, between Monroeville and Norwalk. The firm has also constructed a new bridge on Terry Road in Peru Township and, an intersection improvement at Snyder and Ridge Roads in Bronson Township and in 2001 R&I was the contractor for the county's railroad overpass on Old State Road in Ripley Township.

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