<< Back 9/18/02 No bridge to the past? SMN The McCoy Bridge, which spans the Little Tennessee River in the Oak Grove community of northern Macon County and connects N.C. 28 and Rose Creek Road is the last remaining vehicular truss bridge in the county. For many, the one-lane bridge is a slice of Americana worth protecting. “I’ve crossed that bridge more times than I can remember, and I would hate to see it taken down,” said Bitty Jo Nichols. According to Nichols, the bridge was named for her father, B.V. McCoy. “It was built when I was in grammar school, around 1939, I think,” Nichols said. The Macon County Historical Society has requested the preservation of the bridge. But for the North Carolina Department of Transportation, the McCoy Bridge is outdated and is becoming functionally obsolete. John Williams, NCDOT transportation engineer, said that while the bridge is safe today, it is aging and it simply won’t meet future traffic demands. Williams said DOT engineers and inspectors rank bridges from one to 100 on a “sufficiency rating.” Seventy points of the scale relate to the bridge’s structural integrity and include things like foundation, support, rusting, metal fatigue and erosion at the site. The other 30 points relate to the bridge’s geometry – its size, design and dimensions. According to Williams when a bridge’s sufficiency rating drops below 50, and the McCoy Bridge has, DOT begins to consider replacement. NCDOT has plans to replace the McCoy Bridge with a modern two-lane bridge. Construction is slated to begin in October 2004. Macon County resident Bill McLarney who lives near the bridge reported that the overwhelming majority of citizens who attended NCDOT’s public information meeting August 30 at Oak Grove Baptist Church opposed the removal of the bridge for a number of reasons. Many believe the bridge has considerable historical, cultural and esthetical value. “I have guests from all over the world who float that river. When they see that bridge, they’re in love,” Jerry Anselmo, owner of the Great Smoky Mountains Fish Camp, said. “That little bridge is gorgeous. It is an asset to the county and the Smoky Mountains in general.” Hoop and B.J. Tebault have a summer home adjacent to the bridge. “We bought the property because of the bridge. It is quaint and charming, there are no speeders and no motorcycles – less than 100 cars a day use the bridge,” Tebault said. McLarney, a fisheries biologist, also points out that there are a lot of environmental issues. The Little Tennessee is home to several threatened and endangered species. The presence of these species would require consultation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service before any work could be done. According to McLarney, these issues led DOT to bypass the McCoy project a few years ago. However, Williams said there are no records at DOT to support McLarney’s assertion, and it wouldn’t matter if there were. “We are pursuing it this time and I don’t think we are going to let it go,” he said. Mark Cantrell, USFWS biologist, said the removal of the McCoy Bridge and/or the construction of a new bridge across the Little T would, indeed, require formal consultation. Cantrell said direct impacts to threatened and endangered species and critical habitat would have to be studied and that indirect impacts that might come into play due to any accelerated rate of development would also be considered. These indirect impacts could include habitat modification created by construction and/or the alteration of storm water runoff. Many at the August meeting asked NCDOT officials if pressure from developers was behind the project. The current bridge is only a couple of hundred yards from one parcel of the Needmore tract, which is owned by Duke Energy’s land management arm, Crescent Resources. There was concern that a modern two-lane bridge would attract more development in the rural community. Williams said the McCoy project is solely a safety issue and is in the Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) for purely technical reasons. He said truss bridges like the McCoy Bridge became an issue for the state when one across the Yadkin River collapsed after being struck by a truck. While some at the August meeting suggested repair and rehabilitation of the old bridge as an option, Williams made it clear that would not be a preferred alternative. “We could rehab it, but that would not be our preference from a safety standpoint. Even after rehabilitation, we would still have a fracture critical structure. If we have to rehab, DOT will be very unhappy.” NCDOT’s preferred alternative is to remove the McCoy Bridge and replace it, at the same site, with a modern two-lane bridge. Other alternatives mentioned at the August meeting included locating a new bridge upstream or downstream of the current location. According to McLarney there was no consideration of repairing the current bridge or replacing it with another one-lane bridge. NCDOT did say they would consider moving the McCoy Bridge to another spot such as a greenway but McLarney said that wouldn’t truly preserve the historical value of the bridge and it certainly wouldn’t preserve the value to the community. NCDOT officials said there was no estimate available for the project but $225,000 was approved for preliminary engineering plans for the project in November 2000. The money is appropriated through a federal cost-share program, with the state paying 20 percent. The comment period on the McCoy Bridge project is open until the end of September. To comment write to John Williams, NCDOT, P.O. Box 25201, Raleigh, NC 27611 and/or Roger Sheats, NCDOT, 1501 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC 27699-1501. The McCoy Bridge is TIP Project B-3868.