WEDNESDAY UPDATE: The county received approval from GDOT for a bridge repair plan today. Construction will begin Monday, May 16, and is expected to take about a week, a county spokesman said this afternoon.

COVINGTON, Ga. — State officials closed the County Road 213 bridge over the Alcovy River and began detouring traffic earlier Monday after it failed a scheduled inspection.

A regularly scheduled, specialized inspection by GDOT Monday, May 9, found corrosion where four steel pilings meet one of the structure's bent caps — meaning support of the bridge is not up to standard, said GDOT spokesman Gil Pound.

"Our inspection team found extensive corrosion where the steel pilings meet one of the concrete bent caps ... which is why the closure was put in place." 

Pound said maintenance of the bridge is up to the Newton County government. After the county completes repairs GDOT must reinspect the bridge before it can be reopened to traffic, he said. 

The decades-old bridge is east of Georgia Hwy. 36 near the entrance to the Sautee Bluff neighborhood and the historic Starrsville community. 

An average of about 3,100 vehicles per day travel on the road, which is a major east-west route connecting central Newton with Mansfield and Newborn, according to information from GDOT.

The state's bridge inspection unit is under the GDOT Office of Bridge Maintenance and Design, Pound said. It checks most Georgia bridges on a two-year cycle with specialized inspections done every four years, he said. 

Newton County government is working with engineers to begin drawing up a design for approval by GDOT, the county government stated on its Facebook page.

"Once that is done, a contractor will be engaged to make repairs on the corroded piles. The bridge will remain closed until repairs are complete. A timetable will become clearer as the process continues."

District 1 Commissioner Stan Edwards said he asked Interim County Manager Jarvis Sims to check if the bid process could be waived "for the sake of time" and a company be selected for repairs based on criteria like past performance. 

He said he did not know if waiving the bid process was "possible or even if the other commissioners will agree." However, the closing of CR 213 follows a six-month closing of the road in 2021 for replacement of a separate bridge over West Bear Creek.

"This is an emergency scenario already but made worse by the fact that another bridge fix — replacement — within three miles and on the same road was completed only a couple of months back after being closed for many months," Edwards wrote on his Facebook page.

One Facebook user commented that she was driving a 15-ton school bus westbound on CR 213 Monday. As she sat as the first vehicle in a line waiting to cross the bridge Monday a sheriff's deputy arrived with blue lights flashing to begin closing the road to traffic. 

"So I backed my bus up until a deputy helped me navigate a small area I could turn around and proceeded down Dixie Road to Henderson," she said.

She said she has driven a school bus over the bridge four times a day for five years.

"There are several buses that turn left onto 213 and cross (the bridge)," she said.

Edwards said GDOT — not the local government — is responsible for making sure bridges in Georgia are in good repair.

District 5 Commissioner Ronnie Cowan said he does not believe any county officials are to blame for the shutdown. 

"Nothing lasts forever," Cowan said. "It (the shutdown) is much better than it collapsing and somebody falling into the river down there." 

The county does not have the time or staff to check its bridges for structural problems, Cowan said. 

He said the state government employs bridge engineers and is in charge of monitoring the structures. It is similar to state waste management experts monitoring local landfills for deficiencies and ordering local operators to fix them if needed, Cowan said. 

"That's the way it's supposed to work," he said.

Cowan also said Newton County government has been working to replace or repair its aging bridges "and make sure they're not a hazard to anybody." 

Recent projects have included a bridge replacement on Bethany Road and plans for two others along Brown Bridge Road.

"This is just another one on the list," Cowan said. "We're just going to have to bear with it while we get it fixed."

The county government and sheriff's office on Tuesday advised motorists to use alternate routes around the closed bridge.

County officials urged motorists wanting to travel east on 213 to use the following detour: Left on Henderson Mill, left on Dixie Road and end at the intersection at Dixie Road and Hwy. 213. Vehicles traveling west from Mansfield should go left on Dixie Road, right on Henderson Mill and right on Hwy. 36.