Roaring Creek Bridge Officially Opens

(Provocative Summary): Residents of the Oak Grove neighborhood are driving a lot less these days because of a new bridge that was opened in a ceremony this morning. They are pleased to stop using the longer route into Midville after a flood washed out their old bridge last year.

(Informational Summary): A flood washed out the bridge over Roaring Creek last year, and a new one was erected quickly due to state and federal funds and money that was already in the budget for bridge repairs. Oak Grove residents were pleased as a ceremony opened the new bridge this morning, making their commute into Midville much easier.

Ceremonies this morning opened the new bridge over Roaring Creek replacing the one that a flood washed out last year.

Midville Mayor Seth Montana, U.S. congresswoman Nancy Draughorn and U.S. Sen. Warren Johns were in attendance as the new bridge was christened.

The old bridge was more than 75 years old, and when it was destroyed, the county already had money in its budget for repairs, said Ronald Lively, head of the County Department of Transportation.

“Problem was, we didn’t have enough to replace the bridge. We were just going to repair it," Lively said, "Fortunately, some state and federal money was available, and we were able to do it a lot quicker than we had expected."

This was great news to residents of the Oak Grove neighborhood who use the bridge to commute into Midville, where many of them work.

Without the bridge, the residents had to take an alternate route that was over 9 miles longer.

“Traveling all that way has made it very inconvenient for a lot of people,” said Oak Grove resident Josh Spiva, “We’ve had to use a lot of time and gasoline just to make what otherwise would be very short trips. Having this bridge erected so quickly is a blessing.”