Construction bid awarded for O&W Road bridge project
Officials hope road can be reopened by winter
HUNTSVILLE | A bid has been awarded, and construction will soon begin on a new bridge over Pine Creek on O&W Road.
The road has been closed at its intersection with Toomey Road near the entrance to the Big South Fork National River & Recreation Area since the TN Dept. of Transportation condemned a bridge over Pine Creek last year.
Earlier this month, the Scott County Finance Committee approved a bid from King General Contracting to replace the bridge — a single-lane bridge constructed in 1917 as the Oneida & Western Railroad was built, making it one of the oldest in Scott County.
As the O&W Road follows Pine Creek into the Big South Fork River gorge, it crosses the creek four times. All of those bridges were built at about the same time as the railroad was constructed nearly 110 years ago. Two of the bridges over Pine Creek, further upstream towards Oneida, have long since been replaced. With the replacement of the bridge near the Toomey Road intersection, only the final bridge over Pine Creek, which is located within the Big South Fork NRRA near where Pine Creek empties into the Big South Fork River, will remain as an original. The road follows the old railroad grade to the river and beyond, ending where it crosses North White Oak Creek at the Scott-Fentress county line. The remainder of the old railroad grade beyond the creek crossing is a multi-use trail maintained by the National Park Service.
The O&W Road bridge was one of two condemned by TDOT after low inspection scores. Niggs Creek Road in Oneida remains closed near its intersection with U.S. Highway 27 in the High Point community, where it overpasses the Norfolk-Southern Railroad. According to Scott County Road Superintendent Kelvin King, the county is awaiting final approval from the railroad on the design of a new bridge there.
Both bridges are being replaced using state money appropriated by the 2017 IMPROVE Act that increased gas taxes in Tennessee to pay for road infrastructure projects.
King previously told the Independent Herald that construction can begin about 45 days after the bid is awarded, and that he hopes O&W Road will be reopened by winter.