Rainy week means Red River bridge will remain closed a little longer

Red River Road, the main cut-through on the east side of Rock Hill, remains closed a week after a bridge washed out during holiday storms. More rainfall this week may keep the bridge closed for a week more.

Drivers have avoided Red River Road since rising water from Manchester Creek surged past the bridge during storms just before Christmas, carrying away soil under support pilings. The S.C. Department of Transportation closed the bridge so repairs could be made this week. Recent heavy rainfall will delay its reopening.

With the bridge closed, drivers have had to find other ways to get from the intersection of Celanese and Cherry roads on the north side of Rock Hill to Dave Lyle Boulevard. The bridge is near the city’s water plant on the Catawba River and the Waterford Business Park, which remain accessible from the road on either end of the bridge.

The Red River bridge is also near Rock Hill’s River Park, which closed Thursday after more than three inches of rain fell, causing creeks to overflow their banks. It wasn’t immediately clear if the bridge suffered any further damage. York County’s DOT maintenance engineer said inspectors would examine the structure Monday.

The earliest the bridge could reopen is later this week, if no other problems are found.

The reopening of the bridge was dependent on another seasonal factor: the holiday schedule of asphalt mixers.

A DOT crew refilled the area around the bridge pilings Tuesday but had to wait to get the asphalt to resurface the bridge. Asphalt manufacturers the state would normally use have taken the holidays off.

“We’re dependent on the contractor, and that amount is not enough to get them to fire up the plant,” said York County maintenance engineer Clint Beaver.

SCDOT had hoped to repave the bridge Monday and reopen it later the same day.

This week, crews had already addressed the main problem from the washout, placing “flowable fill” around the pilings on the creek bed.

“They had to dig a four-feet-by-20-feet cap,” said Todd Cook, the district maintenance engineer. “We made all the repairs (Tuesday). Now we’re just at the mercy of the weather and the asphalt.”

The Red River bridge was rated “structurally deficient” in a June 2013 inspection, the most recent available data from the Federal Highway Administration. Forty-one bridges in York County received the “structurally deficient” rating in inspections from 2012 to 2014.

This story was originally published January 2, 2016 at 7:26 PM with the headline "Rainy week means Red River bridge will remain closed a little longer."