Oak Grove Celebrates Bridge Reopening

Summary 1 (Informational): Oak Grove residents celebrated the reopening of the bridge over Roaring Creek this morning. Government officials and Oak Grove residents attended the ceremony.

Summary 2 (Provocative): Oak Grove residents will no longer have to endure the hardships of a long detour in order to get home. The bridge over Roaring Creek has been reopened and is hailed as a blessing by some residents.

Oak Grove Celebrates Bridge Reopening

The residents of the Oak Grove neighborhood are once again able to reach their homes with the reopening of the bridge over Roaring Creek in a formal ceremony this morning.

A formal opening ceremony was held this morning at 11:00. U.S. Representative Nancy Draughorn and U.S. Sen. Warren Johns attended the ceremony, as did Mayor Seth Montana of Midville.

The bridge over Roaring Creek washed out last year during a flood.

“The bridge was not in great shape when it was destroyed,” Roland Lively, head of the County Department of Transporation, said.

But Lively said that the county’s budget did not have enough funds to rebuild the bridge.

The destruction of the bridge posed a hardship for Oak Grove residents. With the bridge washed out Oak Grove residents had to detour over nine miles to reach their homes.

“Traveling all that way has made it very inconvenient for a lot of people,” Oak Grove resident Josh Spiva said. Spiva said the detour resulted in residents using a lot of time and gas for what would otherwise have been short trips.

But the budget crisis that was preventing the rebuilding of the bridge was ended. The state and the U.S. Department of Transportation contributed funds to rebuild the bridge.

Total cost of bridge = $700,000
• County funds = $100,000
• State funds = $200,000
• Federal funds= $400,000

Residents of the Oak Grove neighborhood say they are happy with the new structure.

“Have this bridge erected so quickly is a blessing,” Spiva said.