State looking to give away 2 bridges in Craighead County

By Associated Press

JONESBORO — State highway officials want to give away a pair of historic bridges in Craighead County to make room for replacements.

Because the two bridges are eligible for the National Register of Historic Bridges, they can't just be torn down, the Arkansas State Highway and Transportation Department said. The two bridges - Cache River Bridge and Bayou DeView Bridge, both along Arkansas 226 - are scheduled to be replaced.

So the department hopes to find someone to take over the title of one or both of the bridges and promise to maintain and preserve the historic integrity of the structures.

"Every once and awhile, it does happen," said David Nilles, a spokesman for the highway department. "A community might see a use for it in a different capacity," such as a pedestrian bridge.

Craighead County Judge Dale Haas said the county doesn't have the time or money to take on the two bridges.

"It just costs so much to maintain highways and bridges," Craighead County Judge Dale Haas told The Jonesboro Sun. "And to keep an old bridge that you're not going to ever use anymore, does that make a lot of sense to me? Probably not."

Haas said the county already has to maintain historic wooden bridges, including the Williams Landing Bridge near Dixie.

"They force us to maintain that bridge because of its historical value, when we could replace it and it costs a whole lot more to maintain it in the long run than it does to replace it," he said.

The Cache River Bridge, located west of Cash, is a Camelback Pony Truss, the only one of its kind remaining in the state, the state highway department said. It consists of one 70-foot truss span and has an overall length of 180 feet, with a 25-foot wide deck.

The Bayou DeView Bridge, located east of Cash, is a Parker Pony Truss, one of 16 remaining in Arkansas. It has a 90-foot single truss span, with an overall length of 192 feet, and a 26-foot deck width.