Staff photo / Emily Scott Steve Papalas, administrative assistant in the county engineer’s office, says that while the Newton Falls Covered Bridge is closed to vehicles, it is still open for pedestrians. The bridge was damaged by a car accident in February 2022.

NEWTON FALLS — Those involved with repairing to the Newton Falls Covered Bridge are getting ready for construction, which is expected to begin in a couple of months.

The historic landmark, which is owned by the county, has been closed since a car hit the side of it on Feb. 10, 2022. Trumbull County Deputy Engineer Gary Shaffer said police think the driver was speeding through the bridge, hit a slick spot on the wooden floor and spun out.

The car ended up in a snow drift on the west side of the bridge with fluid leaking, an axle broken and a tire down the road.

On the inside walls of the bridge, beams make up a lattice pattern that goes the length of the bridge. Horizontal beams on the top and bottom on each wall help to hold the diagonal beams in place. The crash damaged about six of the diagonal beams, but because of how the bridge was constructed, half of it will have to be somewhat taken apart to replace those beams.

The horizontal beams, as well as part of the wooden floor, will have to come off to get to the diagonal beams. The horizontal beams span half the length of the bridge. So, when construction begins, a causeway and a support structure will have to be built under the bridge to hold it up during repairs.

“Basically, you have to build another bridge under the existing one to be able to make the repairs,” said Steve Papalas, administrative assistant in the county engineer’s office.

The causeway will be built from the southwest corner of the bridge. Shaffer said the project will begin around June. He noted it is best to do this type of project in the warmer months when the river is at a lower level, which makes constructing the causeway less difficult. The river still will be able to flow during construction.

Once construction begins, Shaffer said the project will take about 90 days to complete. This Friday, all of the entities involved in the project will come together for a pre-construction meeting, at which time, Shaffer said a more concrete timeline will begin to be developed.

The county engineer’s office awarded a bid to Union Industrial Contractors of Ashtabula for about $762,000. Shaffer said this company has done more minor repairs on this bridge in the past. The county engineer’s office is insured by the County Risk Sharing Authority, or CORSA, which covers the cost of the repairs.

Of this cost, just $18,000 worth of materials will stay with the bridge once construction is complete.

Shaffer said it has taken so long to get the project started because of the magnitude of the cost. He said originally, insurance was going to give the county only $16,000 to repair the bridge, but the engineer’s office knew that wasn’t going to cut it.

“I’ve got to give props to our prosecutor’s office for staying on this. They really went to bat for us,” Shaffer said.

Eventually, CORSA sent a structural engineer from out west to look at the bridge. This engineer specializes in historic bridges. Shaffer said this is when the insurance company finally agreed to cover a higher cost.

Building a new, modern bridge over the river where the covered bridge is would cost about $1 million, Shaffer said.

The project also was slightly delayed, because the first time the engineer’s office put the project out to bid last fall, no company submitted a proposal. Shaffer said the engineer’s office had to dig into why that was. He said the plans were tweaked and the engineer’s estimate was increased after they considered more the labor costs for building the required support structure.

The project went back out to bid in December 2022 and was then awarded.

Shaffer noted that because of the bridge’s age and complexity, there weren’t examples on which to help the engineer base the cost on when making the estimate. Because of this, Shaffer said it took a lot of work for the office to feel ready to put out a bid.

“We really had to think like a contractor,” Shaffer said. “To consider all of the costs, you almost have to completely design it, and that’s what we did.”

HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE

The Newton Falls Covered Bridge is the only covered bridge in Trumbull County. It is the second oldest covered bridge in the state, but the oldest that is still in use in its original location.

The covered bridge was built in 1831 on what is now Arlington Street, and was built on the Town Lattice Truss Design. It spans 123 long and 24 feet wide over the east branch of the Mahoning River.

Because of how the diagonal beams that need to be replaced seem to have been constructed, Shaffer and Papalas said they likely are original.

“These beams predate the Civil War. It’s a shame they have to go,” Papalas said.

The historical nature of the bridge does make it more expensive and complicated to repair. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. Because of this, Shaffer said the county has to be sure to maintain the bridge’s historical structure, or it could be kicked off the registry. This is why they could not just patch the bridge and get it up and working faster.

Papalas said that while there were some people who suggested the covered bridge be moved to a park where it could become part of a walking path, the county engineer wanted to preserve it because of how historic it is.

Shaffer said the bridge undergoes basic repairs and maintenance every 10 to 15 years. With the historical nature, also comes with more grants available to the county engineer’s office.

“I can get typically 80 percent of the funding for a project like this covered, but the second you put it in a park, that funding is gone,” Shaffer said. “Then who’s going to maintain it?”

This is not the first time the192-year-old bridge has undergone major repairs.

In 1921, the covered sidewalk was added to provide safe passage for children walking to the then-newly opened school on Center Street. in 1943, two stone piers were added to help support the bridge. These were replaced with steel pile piers in 1962.

A tornado damaged the main roof and sidewalk in May 1985, creating the need for repair.

Finally, in 2007, a restoration was completed that returned the bridge to its 1943 appearance.