AUGUSTA, Ga. (WJBF) – At the Olive Road Overpass, the feeling is ‘here we go again’. The road is closed and another detour is in place.
“It happens all the time, I don’t know why. Everything is here to deter people from hitting it. They still hit it. It’s like they’re trying to tear it down,” said Richard Cliett.
The latest accident last week knocked a heavy support beam off the bridge and getting the bridge fixed requires a special crew, so the work will take weeks just to get started.
“There are specialty crews the railroad has that travel all over the country and do this sort of thing. They won’t be able to be in Augusta until probably March. We anticipate the bridge will be closed through April,” said Augusta Traffic Engineer John Ussery.
Late last year commissioners discussed putting a chain curtain at bridge height so vehicles would hit that instead of the bridge, but no new devices have been installed.
“Hopefully we could put it in place before the bridge opens back up. It would be worth it just to keep this from happening again,” said Commissioner Wayne Guilfoyle.