(File photo) Belpre resident Joe Finley kicks off the northwestern bank of the Little Muskingum River below the closed Hune Covered Bridge in Lawrence Township in 2020, across from a landslip that put the historic structure at risk.

Money awarded nearly seven years ago won’t be enough to replace the Hune Covered Bridge and reopen it for vehicular traffic, but county officials plan to repair it as a pedestrian-only structure.

Washington County commissioners on Thursday approved a request from Engineer Roger Wright to go after $75,000 awarded by the state in 2019, when the goal was to restore and relocate the existing bridge, then install a new one at the original location.

“The expense of replacing bridges is now outpacing our revenue,” said Wright. “We have a large number of structures that need replacement and not enough revenue coming in.”

Due to the condition of the bridge in 2019, the engineering department requested $420,000 in state capital funds. But they were only awarded $75,000.

“At that time, I had to start to think about what we were doing and that we had to do something differently,” said Wright. “We weren’t able to procure enough funds to do the $4 (million) to $5 million dollar project to move the bridge and build a brand new bridge on the same location.”

(File photo) Frontier Local Economic Development Association Secretary Mike Webber stops to look over the closed Hune Covered Bridge in Lawrence Township in 2020.

Due to the instability of the structure and nearby landslip activity, the Hune Covered Bridge was closed to all traffic in 2020.

During last week’s commission meeting, Wright said the department was looking to keep the bridge and open it only to pedestrian traffic. He said the community was disappointed they weren’t going to be able to open it back up for vehicular traffic.

“We had to create it as a pedestrian-only project,” he said. “We gave you a timeline and the studies and all of the things that we did in order to document our decision-making process.”

Wright said they didn’t anticipate the community being happy with the change, but the department didn’t have enough funds to execute the original plan.

The document Wright provided to commissioners stated construction costs had continued to rise since 2021 and the engineering office continued to secure funding.

The document said the legal load limit for the bridge would be around 5 tons rather than the original goal of 40 tons to carry vehicles.

He said the approval of the commissioners on the request would allow the department to access that money from the state capital budget that was provided in 2019.

“As long as this is to go after that state funding and in no way, shape or form directs us to adjusting sales tax, I’m fine with running this through,” said Commissioner Charlie Schilling.

Washington County Prosecutor Nicole Coil would sign all legal agreements related to the state capital budget funds for the project.

In other business Thursday, Schilling read a letter of support into the record for the Connected Marietta Initiative, which strives to enhance downtown Marietta by improving traffic flow and activity for pedestrians.

The letter was directed to the secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation.

“Washington County will serve as the direct recipient of BUILD funds and lead project delivery,” he said. “We’re happy to support that.”

The BUILD (Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development) Discretionary Grant Program is funding for road, rail, transit and port projects.

The Connected Marietta Initiative, previously known as “CROSS Marietta,” was launched by Marietta Mayor Josh Schlicher and officials of Washington County and Marietta College.

More information is available online at https://www.connectedmarietta.com/.

Washington County Recorder Teresa Judson said the organizers putting on the upcoming America 250 celebrations met last week to plan more events. She said there’s a guidebook for the America 250 events which can be accessed on mariettaohio.org/

The Washington County Courthouse is closed Monday for Presidents’ Day.