QULIN — Butler County officials were forced to close the historic Hargrove Bridge over the Black River recently when a routine inspection turned up structural problems.
“The state sent us a report to close it,” explained Presiding Commissioner Vince Lampe.
Officials closed the bridge, located on County Road 658 north of Qulin, Monday, Aug. 30.
The Missouri Department of Transportation, Lampe said, is in charge of inspecting all bridges and scuba divers recently found the casing on some of the bridge’s supports “had been undermined.”
“Water had rushed under some of them,” Lampe said.
At the time of the inspection, Lampe said, the water was muddy, so state investigators don’t yet know the extent of the damage and will need to come back for further inspection.
“They’re going to come back and tell us what we need to do to fix it,” Lampe said, but he’s not sure when that will be.
“We don’t know how long it’s going to be, and we don’t know the extent of the damage because they couldn’t get good pictures,” Lampe said.
Once the report is received from MoDOT, the county, Lampe said, will be on the hook for the cost of repairs to the bridge.
The original bridge was opened in 1917 and featured a pivot, allowing it to turn to allow larger boat traffic to pass.
The 219-foot-long bridge was closed in 1992 because of flood damage, seven years after it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The bridge was rehabilitated and reopened on July 2, 1999.