New Martintown Road bridge to open ahead of schedule

The new bridge that carries Martintown Road over the Little Tallahatchie River will be officially open tomorrow, Thursday, July 28. Traffic across the old bridge was stopped when demolition work on it began Wednesday, March 9, 2016.

Workmen finished grading Wednesday on the downstream side of the new bridge that carries Martintown Road across the Little Tallahatchie River.

The Union County Board of Supervisors awarded the contract to demolish the old bridge and build the new one earlier this year to the N. L. Nelson Construction Company of Carthage, Miss., which bid $785,601.80. The bridge is complete a few days earlier than the anticipated completion date of August 1.

The bridge is in Union County District Two, which is represented by Supervisor Chad Coffey. There was no state aid money available for the new bridge, which was paid for entirely from Union County bridge money.

Supervisor Coffey expressed gratitude to many people for their patience and work as construction proceeded.

Martintown Road Bridge in March, after demolition of old bridge.

Approach to Martintown Road Bridge, now completed.

“Many residents experienced a lot of  inconvenience while the work on the new bridge was being done,” Coffey said Wednesday. “Some of the folks had to detour 15 – 18 miles each way to reach their destinations in New Albany or elsewhere while the bridge was built. I received no complaints from them, and I’m glad their daily travel can now get back to normal.”

“The new bridge was a major investment by the Board of Supervisors. We could not have done it without the cooperation of every supervisor on the board. They supported it all the way, from start to finish,” Coffee said.

Coffey was in continual daily contact with the bridge contractor and with the county’s consulting engineers as the work progressed. “I want to thank Larry Britt, Jason McCullough and Jimmy Catt of the Elliot and Britt Engineering firm for working with us as they did. They saved us money on several aspects of the bridge project and did an excellent job of supervising and inspecting the work at every stage.”