Nonprofit group strengthens Iron Station bridge, outlines future plans following another washout
IRON STATION, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — For the first time in close to a month, most families along Amity Lane have driven their vehicles home after work was completed to a makeshift bridge added after the main culvert washed out.
Queen City News first reported the Iron Station neighborhood’s culvert washout following strong storms in mid-January, which left families stranded.
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The culvert was the only entrance and exit more than two-dozen families had to their homes.
Since then, the Lincoln County emergency services added a pedestrian bridge to give people the ability to walk across to their homes, or drive all-terrain vehicles across. A makeshift gravel bridge was also added to the beside the pedestrian bridge, but it would only allow four-wheel drive vehicles to get across.
Other families have had to park on one side of the bridge and then walk upwards to a mile to get home.
Monday morning, the Mennonite Disaster Services took its first steps to fully helping the families.
Philip Troyer, one of the N.C. representatives with the nonprofit, worked throughout the day to smooth out and stabilize the make-shift gravel bridge.
Troyer used, what he described as “road bond,” a combination of various minerals and materials which has allowed two-wheel drive vehicles to cross.
He told Queen City News that he had seen four vehicles cross that had previously been parked on the other side of the bridge.
“I just can’t believe what people have had to go through to live through these situations,” he explained.
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The Mennonite Disaster Services has also closed in on a timeline from when it will be able to construct a new, 20-ton bridge which will be at a lower risk of ever washing out.
This is the first time the nonprofit has ever built a bridge in North Carolina, with much of their work being done in Virginia and West Virginia.
Troyer said that the bridges have never involved muddy ground conditions like in this corner of Lincoln County, but engineers have taken that into consideration in their plans.
He expects the organization will be able to begin construction sometime around the first of March.
From there, it will take roughly a week to finish the structure.
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