Spellacy Bridge project nearing the finish line
Spellacy Bridge, one of the longest covered bridges in the United States, will soon be open, allowing traffic in Loudonville and the Mohican area to freely travel along Wally Road.
After months of construction and plenty of fanfare and anticipation, traffic on Wally Road is nearly ready to flow freely.
Construction on the Wally Road/Spellacy Bridge project has remained on target for its anticipated completion date of early fall, and according to Chris Young, Holmes County engineer, who has been instrumental in the project, Kokosing has provided excellent work in making sure the construction stayed on target.
“They’ve been excellent. I’m very pleased with their work,” Young said of Kokosing.
Young also announced Spellacy Bridge will be open to the public beginning Sept. 1, which was exciting news for both locals and tourists who heavily use Wally Road. It is equally important for the many tourism-based campgrounds and canoeing facilities in and around the Loudonville and Mohican area that rely on that road to bring people to the area.
“We felt it was important to get the bridge open for Labor Day weekend to support all of the local tourism businesses who will see plenty of traffic during that weekend,” Young said. “It’s one of their biggest weekends of the year.”
While the bridge will officially open that day, it may see a partial close-down in the near future. That is because the lighting for the inside of the bridge, which is coming from a company in Florida, is not quite ready to ship.
Young said that shipping date is slated for around Sept. 1, and once the lighting comes in, the idea will be to leave the bridge open during daylight hours and then close during the evening, allowing workers to erect the lighting on the inside of the bridge at a time when there is expected to be far less travel.
Young said there will be temporary lighting in place while lighting construction is completed, and he expects the work to take around one week once the lights come in.
“This is an exciting time for our community and our county,” Young said.
This project carries enough weight that Young installed a camera to not only record the building process start to finish, but also to allow the public to go online and watch the progress.
The magnitude of Spellacy Bridge can’t be understated.
To put the size of the new bridge in perspective, The Bridge of Dreams near Brinkhaven that spans the Mohican River is 370 feet long. It is the second largest covered bridge in Ohio and the third largest covered bridge in the United States. The Smolen-Gulf Bridge in Ashtabula County is currently the largest covered bridge in the nation, spanning a whopping 613 feet across the Ashtabula River.
At 300 feet, the Spellacy Bridge is going to be a uniquely large covered bridge that should draw plenty of tourists to view it. Add to it the sheer beauty and it provides plenty of reasons that the community should be excited about not only the bridge providing safe travel across the Mohican River, but also a tourist destination that will invite many people to come and see the bridge.
Young said once the lights are in place, the bridge will be open at all times, although he did say there is still some cosmetic work that needs to take place to fully enhance the beauty of the bridge.
“We still have trees to plant and seeding, but once it’s totally complete, it is going to be a beautiful bridge and an amazing addition to the area,” Young said.