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Experts: Dismantling Goddard Bridge unnecessary for restoration
Monday, August 18, 2003 10:19 PM EDT
Summoned by the newly reinstated Buffalo Trace Covered Bridge Authority, Tim Andrews, Dave Fishetti and Arnold Graton are in the area through today. During their visit the men will inspect each of the seven covered bridges in the five-county Buffalo Trace area.
Fishetti told the people gathered at an introduction dinner Sunday to look at the bridges; there are marks that tell their story.
"Ghost marks let us know what was there in the beginning," Fishetti said. "If you look, the bridge will tell you the things you need to know."
During a visit Monday to the Goddard Bridge, the controversial span "told" the experts the roof that now protects the bridge from the weather is not the original roof.
"Those square notches up there on that timber are where the original roof went," Fischetti said. "This roof is not the one that was built with the bridge."
The experts said the roof was likely changed when the bridge was moved in 1934.
Numbers at the top of the timbers also tell of the move up the creek. Although no one at the bridge Monday remembered how it was moved, resident Mary Lucy Emmons told the experts it was moved to the current site two years before she started her first year at Goddard School, across the creek from the bridge.
"They moved this bridge up here to replace the old swinging bridge," Emmons said.
Fishetti said by looking at the abutments, he and the other two experts had already learned the stone structures were not original to the bridge.
The three men explained to the crowd at the bridge how they would go about restoring the time-worn span. None of them suggested taking the bridge apart for restoration.
"Taking those trusses apart would mean replacing most of them," Fishetti said. "They would not stand the strain of reassembly."
Puzzled by talk of dismantling the bridge, Fishetti and Graton asked why the current contractors, Intech Contractors, Inc. would take down the bridge to do preservation and restoration work. Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, Department of Highways engineer Steve Halloran said dismantling was the way all the bridges were to be restored.
"You could never put this bridge back together," Fishetti said. "The town lattice design is more complicated than other designs. You could not get 100 percent bearing on the trunnels if you took it down."
Halloran asked the three experts if there was anything wrong with taking down the bridge to restore it. The quiet spoken Graton said, "it makes folks anxious," when they see their bridge come apart.
Not only is dismantling unnecessary for Goddard, Fishetti said it would be more expensive.
Public outcry over the proposed restoration forced the Transportation Cabinet to take a second look at covered bridge preservation. Although the work has been contracted to Intech, District 9 Chief Engineer Jim Rummage said the contract could be revised. However, no discussion of a revision has been held.
Steve Donovan, chair of the Covered Bridge Authority, invited the experts to the area to find an alternative solution to restoration of the bridges.
"If there is a way to preserve the bridges, these men will find it," Donovan said.
A tour of the Fleming County covered bridges was completed Monday afternoon. The men will inspect the other bridges in the Buffalo Trace area today and present their findings to the Fleming County Fiscal Court at tonight's meeting at the courthouse at 7 p.m.
Contact Danetta Barker at Danetta.Barker@lee.net
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