Bogle Road Bridge

Finally, some good news. The replacement project is still on, but a huge greenways restoration project going on in nearby Bowling Green, KY seems to have at least a tentative spot on the greenway/walking trails for the bridge's relocation.

http://www.bgdailynews.com/news/local/bridge-may-be-on-the-move/article_b4485dda-91ab-11e1-bb5d-001a4bcf887a.html

The state's share of the funding for removing the bridge, widening the approaches, and replacing the bridge is a whole $160,000.00.

I'm not sure what they can accomplish with that kind of money other than filling the the track bed with gravel and paving over it. It's no doubt going to be something cheap and ugly.

Due to economic conditions, the "6 year plan" has been scraped, and resubmitted as a "2 year plan". This was passed, and signed by der Governor.

That moves the demolition of the old Bogle Road bridge up to the middle of next year instead of 2013. And they claim that none of the parks want it.

Sad end to such a solid little fellow. It's only gripe is being considered too narrow for school buses from the new nearby school. But Kentucky just completely blows when it comes to old bridges.

The locals in that area don't seem to care what happens to it, as long as there is some kind of bridge over the tracks. There are several parks in the area, and a little TLC and some new deck timbers would make this an excellent pedestrian bridge over a park stream (Basil Griffin park has several creeks and streams). I emailed that suggestion to KTC, but that was just this morning after I found out about the funding, and I've no idea how long it will be before I get a response, if I do at all.

This bridge is 50 feet long and could probably be transported with a heavy duty pick up truck. However the bridge is located in Kentucky and is being funded by KTC. Godspeed.

Well, it's official. KTC has allocated the money and put replacement of this bridge into it's "6 year plan". Destruction is currently scheduled for 2013.

Bad news. I was using Google's new archive search to see if I could find any old articles about the bridge and an approximate age, and found this instead;

http://transportation.ky.gov/progmgmt/web_site/JimWendersNew/Combined_reportjs.asp?txtsearch=3&txtsearch1=1070.00&Submit=Submit

They're only waiting on the funding approval to begin the process of replacing the old bridge. Apparently, the new school they're building at Rockfield will have buses using this route, which will require a bridge with a 9 ton limit, whereas this bridge is only rated at 3 tons.

I guess it's one more example of using the excuse "it's for the kids" to muck something up. :(

I was driving a co-worker with car trouble home this morning, which took me out this way, so I decided to take a short detour to this old bridge and see if I might find a date on it somewhere. Well, I went over, under and through, and no joy. The only markings on the thing is the words "Jones & Laughlin" stamped on the steel every 48 inches.