GENTRY -- The new Dawn Hill East Bridge opened without fanfare late in the day on Aug. 26 and is now open to traffic between Gentry and the Dawn Hill area in the southern part of the city.
The announcement of the bridge opening appeared on the city's Facebook page: "The Dawn Hill East Bridge is now open to traffic. We appreciate the community's patience as we have worked with our partners to provide a safe bridge for years to come. We would like to thank all our partners on this project, but we would like to specifically recognize the following: Arkansas Department of Transportation; Federal Emergency Management Agency; Federal Highway Administration; Garver; Crossland Heavy Contractors Inc.; Ozark Adventist Academy; Arkansas Conference of Seventh-day Adventist; Black Hills Energy; Cox Communication; Carroll Electric Cooperative Corporation; CenturyLink; Civil Engineering; GTS Inc."
The Dawn Hill East bridge over Flint Creek was closed due to April 2017 floodwaters which overflowed the bridge and undercut its support structure.
Following the 2017 flood, Kevin Johnston, Gentry's mayor, had reported that "the debris that washed downstream accumulated under the bridge, causing the water to detour around the north abutment of the bridge, which caused scouring and undermining to the support structures of the bridge."
Johnston explained that, with the support structures under the bridge undermined, a corner of the bridge settled and caused the pavement to crack and a hole to open up. The bridge was deemed unsafe for vehicular and foot traffic and was closed.
At a November 2018 meeting, Johnston reported that current plans involve rebuilding the bridge in three spans and making the bridge 2½ feet higher than the old bridge, with it designed to be overflowed in a major flood event. He said an earlier plan would have caused a negative impact on upstream properties and he did not wish to cause any additional flooding risks to other property owners along the creek. He said the new plan would have no negative impact on upstream property owners.
The bid price of the bridge was $1,294,475, with the Federal Highway Administration paying 80 percent of those costs and the city paying the balance. The final costs had not yet been determined on Thursday but Johnston said it may come in under the bid price.
