LULA — Lula City Manager Dennis Bergin said it's been a long time coming, but through teamwork the Cobb Street bridge over the Norfolk Southern Railroad soon should be repaired making it even better than when it was closed late last year.
"The good news is between Georgia DOT, [Congressman] Doug Collins' office, the City of Lula and Norfolk Southern Railroad, we've all come to an agreement on the bridge will be repaired, and actually upgraded from a three-ton bridge to a five-ton bridge. We're thrilled with everybody's effort on our behalf and as frustrating as it's been to get to this point, we're all about solutions and we've found the right solution and the public will benefit for it."
The bridge over the railroad, connecting Main Street (Old Cornelia Highway) to Wall Street near the Lula Depot, was closed at the beginning of the fourth quarter of 2015 after more than a dozen structural deficiencies were identified.
"It started about October of last year when we first took notice on it," Bergin said. "The issue was to the extent that the infrastructure needed to be replaced and repaired. There's a little bit more to it than what I'm saying right now, but at the end of the day it was a question of whether the bridge needed to be replaced or repaired."
Months of talks with Norfolk Southern officials, Georgia Department of Transportation officials, U.S. DOT officials and Congressman Doug Collins and his staff culminated in Wednesday's agreement.
During the months of talks, the railroad offered to compensate the city if Lula would allow it to remove the bridge to ultimately accommodate taller trains along the corridor. There also at one point was talk of keeping the city's landmark bridge as a pedestrian bridge if it could not be repaired to handle vehicular traffic.
Now it appears those concerns and proposals are in the past.
Bergin said the railroad crossings in the city can be blocked four to five times a day, which leaves no option for large trucks and currently only the underpass for passenger vehicle traffic. Now, Bergin believes the bridge alternative is on the horizon again for certain types of vehicles.
"We believe that bridge location is about 83 years old," Bergin said. "Over time it's served dramatically. We have one underpass, we have two railroad crossings. If you don't think the economy is good, come up here and watch how much rail traffic we have — and that's a good thing. But it also creates a problem for us. The city is intersected by Highway 51, which carries a lot of traffic through Banks County over to I-85."
"For us, keeping the overpass open is a big deal," Bergin said.
An email to the city from Norfolk Southern officials Wednesday states the railroad has identified the materials needed and ordered them, and should know a timetable for the project within about the next month. A Norfolk Southern contractor is expected to perform the work.
