Valley Pike Bridge Removal WGN 17-81-02
April 27, 2018

Notes from my conversation with Doug Daugherty on Wednesday, May 9, 2018
by Bill Caswell

 

Valley Pike Bridge, Mason County, Kentucky: The bridge was (he) removed the bridge on Friday, April 27, 2018 because it had become a real safety issue. He put thousands of dollars of his own money into the bridge to try to save/repair it after the major flood damage it received in July of 2018. He poured a new footing on one end of the bridge to try to help support it, and performed other structural work. Nothing seemed to help it. The heavy snow and ice of the winter of 2017-2018 were also hard on it structurally.

In April he spent about a day on it trying to secure it again but once again, his efforts didn’t secure the bridge to his satisfaction. In the end he considered it a real safety hazard and didn’t want anyone to get hurt so he made the decision to remove the bridge.

As recently as May of 2016 he reached out to historical organizations for help with it but no one ever returned his calls. (I didn’t press him for which ones.)

He has done some other work to it over the years, such as adding steel I-beams underneath the bridge around 2006 to help support it. Cars crossing the bridge had also struck and damaged it in the past.

He has saved some of the major members and some of the siding from the bridge, storing them in his barn, but in his opinion he doesn’t think they are original to 1864 because they are all very squarely cut and appear to be cut with circular saws.

He said many times that he really hated to remove it, but it was just a major safety concern of his so he did what he thought was best.