Butler County Engineer
Greg Wilkens reports that the California Road Bridge over Dry
Fork Creek in Morgan Township will close effective Friday, January
4, 2002 due to safety concerns. The bridge is located 0.2 mile
north of South Dwyer Road and 0.3 mile south of Ohio 126.
Construction of the
nearby Okeana Drewersburg Road bridge is complete, so local motorists
may utilize the following detour:
Northbound California
Road traffic will be re-routed east on Okeana Drewersburg Road
and northwest on Ohio 126 (Cincinnati Brookville Road) to California
Road. Southbound traffic will reverse this route.
The emergency closing
of California Road will be in effect until new bridge construction
is completed this June. Work began last fall to replace the existing
steel truss structure, which was built in 1953. The new bridge
is being constructed on a new alignment to the east of the old
bridge.
BCEO engineers had
planned to keep the existing bridge open during construction
with only a two week closure necessary to tie in the newly aligned
roadway with the new structure. However, recent deterioration
and unauthorized crossings by overweight vehicles have stressed
the existing bridge, making it increasingly unsafe. The aging
structure will be dismantled when construction of the new bridge
is complete.
