The Marion County Highway Department has closed the Lost Creek Bridge on Range Road between Meridian and Pope Roads.
Marion County Highway Engineer Mike McCormick said the closure was ordered by the Illinois Department of Transportation following an inspection that showed some of the timber piles in the three span bridge had failed. McCormick says the good news is IDOT will allow the bridge to be repaired.
He says a contractor is standing by to make the repairs as quickly as possible once IDOT provides a solution to the problem. McCormick says it will include cutting out the bad timbers and replacing them with steel. At this point, he doesn’t have a timetable to reopen the bridge.
McCormick says the repairs will likely give the bridge another ten years of life when it will have to be replaced.
McCormick notes the timing is bad as it is a major route to the FS Grain Elevator in rural Sandoval. He says farmers will have to use an alternate route for the rest of the harvest season.
