By SHELLEY TERRY - Staff Writer - sterry@starbeacon.com
ASHTABULA TOWNSHIP — Despite bad weather, construction carries on at the site of the yet-to-be-named covered bridge, which will take a realigned State Road across the Ashtabula River.
The 600-foot bridge, which will be completed by Aug. 30, will be the longest covered bridge in the United States — a title now held by the Cornish-Windsor Covered Bridge in New Hampshire. Ashtabula County’s 17th bridge will cost about $7.78 million to build and will feature a handicapped-accessible second-story walkway.
The wooden bridge will consist of three-foot-thick pieces of Douglas fir, with hemlock or yellow poplar for the siding.
“It’s moving along well, despite the bad weather,” said Tim Martin, Ashtabula County engineer. “The skeleton of the bridge is in place, and in March, they will start the siding and flooring.”
Even with the winter weather, the site continues to be visited by local and out-of-town folks interested in covered bridges.
People who go to the site will get a sense of its size from the three concrete and steel piers that rise more than 80 feet above the gulf and the 150-foot-long wooden span under construction.
State Road is closed at the bridge over Route 11, and there is parking in that area. Parking is available at the other end of the bridge, near Plymouth Ridge, but the view not as good.
Ohio boasts 141 covered bridges, earning second place in the country behind Pennsylvania with 222, according to a new book called “Covered Bridges,” by Miriam Wood and David Simmons. The book’s photographer, Bill Miller, captured all of Ohio’s bridges.
Of course, Wood and Simmons mentioned former Ashtabula County Engineer John Smolen and how he convinced county officials of the bridges’ tourist value. Smolen designed some of the bridges and gained experience in restoration techniques, while adapting modern construction methods to use with wooden trusses. Smolen build his first covered bridge in 1983 and three more after that, according to Wood.
