GENEVA — The timber is delivered, and the plans are set.
Construction of the nation’s shortest covered bridge is officially under way in Geneva, City Manager Jim Pearson said.
“The donated timber was delivered on Tuesday,” he confirmed. “We can now begin off-site construction.”
One critical component of the project was the donation of timber harvested from Ashtabula County. Timber was donated from Ashtabula County Joint Vocational School, Phil and Cathy Schmidt, William Gubanyar and Ashtabula optometrist John DeVito.
“The timber donations would make or break this project,” Pearson said. “We can’t thank the donors enough.”
The 18-foot-long bridge will be the 18th covered bridge in Ashtabula County, Pearson said, and will make the county home to both the longest and the shortest covered bridges in the United States.
The idea for the shortest covered bridge came when city officials realized the West Liberty Street bridge was deteriorating quickly. Forced to either fix the bridge or close the road, council members voted to obtain a grant to build a unique covered bridge.
The project is financed by a $400,000 Ohio Public Works Commission grant that required the city to take “a minimal loan, at zero percent interest, as an Issue I project,” Pearson said.
Guided by their instructors and John Smolen of Smolen Engineering, ACJVS carpentry students will begin hammering, sawing and building the bridge free of charge. Construction hours logged by ACJVS students are credited toward the city’s matching funds requirement, Pearson said.
“Their work is valuable to us in many ways,” he said.
This first phase of construction is part of the overall city revitalization plan.
Plans for the bridge include footpaths on either side of the structure and a “toll booth,” which will hold tourist information about the bridge and the city, Pearson said.
Pearson calls the shortest covered bridge the “cornerstone” of the city’s revitalization plan, which includes the rehabilitation of Cowles Creek from West Liberty Street to South Broadway and the construction of a cast-iron Welcome to Historic Geneva sign that will arch over Route 534, just after the railroad tracks at the Old Mill Winery, Pearson said.
Cost of the small bridge will be $250,000, far less than the original $360,000 price tag simply to replace the crumbling West Liberty bridge, Pearson said.
Pearson said on-site preparations for the bridge will include new bridge abutments, or footers, made from concrete, which will replace the crumbling foundation of the original West Liberty Street bridge.
“Soil borings will be taken this week or next week,” Pearson said. “Then the city will bid out the abutment construction and installation within the next six to eight weeks.
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