Grant's Mill Road bridge

The Grant's Mill Road bridge, built in 1935, is a 170-foot long two-lane bridge for Grant's Mill Road over Lake Purdy. The bridge was designed for a maximum vehicle weight of 6,000 pounds. An emergency bridge inspection on June 7, 2002 discovered some areas of severe corrosion and resulted in a recommendation to schedule monthly re-inspections and to strictly enforce weight limits.

In order to help enforce limits on trucks using the bridge, the city of Birmingham installed PVC "headache bars" at each end of the bridge in 2003. These were replaced with orange barrels in September 2007, in concert with more active police supervision of the bridge's approach. A month later 1" thick steel tubes weighing 200 to 300 pounds were installed in place of the barrels as a "last-ditch effort" to avoid having to close the bridge. Mayor Bernard Kincaid threatened to close the bridge unless haulers paid heed to the warnings.

Replacing the corroded steel deck is expected to cost as much as $700,000. The concrete piers are judged to be in good shape.

References

• MacDonald, Ginny (August 31, 2007) "Kincaid threatens to close bridge." Birmingham News.
• MacDonald, Ginny (October 13, 2007) "'Super headache bars' up on Grants Mill Road bridge." Birmingham News.