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 The Vietnam Memorial Traveling Wall passes through downtown Wapakoneta Wednesday, September 1. Staff photo/William Laney By CARLA MEYER
Staff Writer
For 45 minutes, the roar of motorcycles could be heard passing under an American flag hanging from two ladder trucks. For 45 minutes, area residents gathered in the shadow of the Auglaize County Courthouse and Wapakoneta Fire Station waved and clapped as motorcyclists rode by.
The smiles and waves turned into clapping and cheers as the Vietnam Memorial Traveling Wall passed down Willipie Street on its way to Custenborder Field in Sidney where it was greeted by a field of American flags.
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Harrison St. Bridge opens to traffic |
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Friday, 06 November 2009 |
 Wapakoneta city and Auglaize County administrators and workers along with area contractors participate in a ribbon-cutting ceremony Thursday to open the Harrison Street Bridge. Auglaize County Bridge Engineer Dan Bennett, who designed the bridge and applied for state and federal funding, cut the ribbon. Staff photo/William Laney By WILLIAM LANEY
Managing Editor
The $2 million Harrison Street Bridge in Wapakoneta is now open to traffic.
Minutes before a motorist in an SUV drove across the bridge from the east, Auglaize County Bridge Engineer Dan Bennett cut a blue ribbon Thursday stretched across the middle of the twin-truss bridge on the west end to officially open the bridge.
Auglaize County Engineer Doug Reinhart discussed the history of the region and the different style of bridges that spanned the Auglaize River through the years before thanking Bennett, the commissioners, city administrators and city, county and private construction crews for their work.
“This is a great day for Wapakoneta,” Reinhart said. “I want to thank Brumbaugh Construction, one of the best contractors that an engineer could ever want, and we have to thank Ohio Bridge who is here from Cambridge, Ohio.
“People need to know all the concrete came from Quality Ready Mix, the stone came Buckland and the asphalt came from Sidney,” the county engineer said. “We didn’t have a bit of stimulus money in this, but the economy was stimulated in this area through this project.”
Mayor Rodney Metz echoed Reinhart’s sentiment.
“This is truly a great day for Wapakoneta residents, and I am glad to see the bridge is open,” Metz said. “By having the bridge open again means it opens up a truck route and opens another major artery for local motorists. This allows us to get traffic off a couple other streets in town and people now have a shorter route they can use to get to their destination.”
He said the opening of bridge should impact school bus routes as well.
The mayor said the bridge and Harrison Street will be closed for short periods of time in the future to permit work on the asphalt, manhole covers, striping and painting.
“It is nice to see projects like this get finished and ahead of schedule,” Metz said. “It shows the fine cooperation among all the parties involved, and I would like to express a great deal of thanks on behalf of the Wapakoneta residents to the county and to the contractors as well as our own workers.”
The new structure replaced a bridge built 45 years ago in 1964.
The new bridge is 46 1/2 feet wide, compared to older structure’s width of 28 feet.
The new structure includes sidewalks on both sides of the bridge. It also was raised to clear the worst flood in a 100-year span based on past occurrences.
During the past 18 months, city Public Works Department and Electric Department crews worked to reroute water, sewer and sanitary sewer lines as well as electric lines because of the bridge replacement project. Private utility companies also moved natural gas, telephone and cable television lines during the past year.
The bridge project was funded through a state grant and the federal highway gasoline tax. The city portion of the street reconstruction was paid through a state Issue 1 grant, with property owners paying for curbs, gutters and sidewalks. The city of Wapakoneta was responsible for $50,000 of the project.
Reinhart called the new bridge Bennett’s “baby” and his “love” because he not only served as the inspector for the project but “he had a wrench in his hand during its construction, a shovel in his hand to help with backfilling and a rake in his hand to work the ground — he helped with this project throughout its construction.”
Bennett began working on the project by filing paperwork with state and federal officials in 2001 in an effort to secure funds for the new bridge. He also worked hard on surveying the area and developing a concept of the new bridge.
In 2004, he worked to have the bridge on the project list with the Ohio Department of Transportation and completed the final bridge design drawings. In the past year, he took part in the bid process and the construction.
“This has been a fun project for me,” Bennett said. “There were a lot of challenges to overcome, a lot of different design features to consider for this bridge — but we figured everything out and came up with a fine project in the end.”
While the bridge closed June 2, Bennett said most people would not realize this project finished ahead of schedule and proceeded rather quickly, nor would they realize the complexity of the project.
He said an average of 3,500 vehicles cross the bridge each day.
“This is one of a kind — it has one-of-a-kind railing, much heavier trusses than most bridges, and it has architectural concrete on the piers and the abutments,” Bennett said. “We have integrated a lot of different features throughout the project. It is truly a one-of-a-kind bridge.”
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Last Updated ( Monday, 09 November 2009 )
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