LULA - The wooden overpass over the Norfolk Southern Railroad on Cobb Street in Lula is closed again.
"DOT has been back at it again, and our bridge is closed," Mayor Milton Turner announced Monday night. "The structure has failed again. They want us to close it. They want us to close it with cement barriers."
But so far city leaders haven't been made aware of the type of structural failure - or many details about the need for closure at all.
In response to a question from Councilman Mordecai Wilson, City Manager Dennis Bergin said, "The first criticism I have is we got the letter through a third party that should have come directly to us. We have contacted Georgia DOT, who are the ones who asked the bridge to be closed and they have failed to return our phone calls."
Bergin said after the meeting that bridges are handled by DOT in Atlanta, not at the district level.
"We also contacted Norfolk Southern - because we have been through this before - and asked them if they were aware that the bridge had deficiencies and if they were would they please let us know, and with opportunity to present itself so we could sit down and have a meeting so we could discuss when those deficiencies would be resolved - and we haven't heard back from them," Bergin said. "So this is deja vu."
Bergin's frustration was evident, especially with GDOT.
"But I am critical that Department of Transportation hasn't gotten back with us," Bergin said. "I think that's wrong. I don't know of an excuse in the world when they closed the bridge, because you - like everybody else - has that question on the tip of their tongue, 'when are we going to get it back open?'"
Bergin said people also are frustrated with the Cobb Street closure.
"They have a bad taste in their mouth," Bergin said. "If you remember, the last time it took us a year to get that bridge repaired. We're not responsible for the repair, Norfolk Southern is, and DOT and Norfolk Southern's relationship is not what it should be."
Turner echoed Bergin's frustration.
"If I remember right, this is fourth bridge closing I have sat through," Turner said.
Cobb Street links Main Street (also known as Old Cornelia Highway) downtown with Wall Street, where the depot is located.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2015/10/342104/lula-bridge-closed-because-structure-has-failed-again