Creek County Bridge Set To Close After Safety Inspection

A Creek County bridge just outside of Bristow is set to close after a recent inspection found it isn't safe.

Closing it is going to cause a 6-mile detour for people living nearby.

Catfish Creek bridge is just outside Bristow city limits on Veterans Memorial Drive, and those who live nearby use it often to get into town.

"If they take this bridge out, it's going to be a major inconvenience for a lot of families," said Donna Parrott.

Parrot lives just on the other side of the bridge and said it has been a safety issue for years.

"We've had wrecks on this bridge; we've had people killed on this bridge; we've had mishaps," she said.

Parrot said it's not only dangerous because it's a single lane bridge, but a lot of people who drive over it disobey the 3-ton weight limit.

"We have a lot of traffic on this bridge - a lot of the traffic is probably heavier than the load should allow. People for whatever reason choose to cross this bridge knowing they're overweight," Parrott said.

But after an inspection last month done by a consultant working with Creek County, the weight limit allowed on the bridge dropped from 3 tons to zero.

The District 3 County Commissioners office said ODOT gave them a month to replace the bridge or close it down. They said there is just not enough money to replace the 106-year-old bridge, so they're shutting it down this Thursday.

Donna Parrot wants to see the bridge replaced with a safer one.

"The bridge needs to be replaced, so when you go across this with equipment, trailers, cattle, whatever. The bridge ought to be sturdy enough it can hold it," she said.

For now, the people living in the roughly 16 homes out there will have to take a 6-mile detour. I drove the route, and it took us about 10 minutes to get back in to Bristow.

The county commissioner’s office said they don't have immediate plans to replace the bridge but hope to figure out a solution soon.

Editor's note: The bridge in question is a Creek County bridge and is managed by the county, not ODOT. The inspection which rendered the bridge unsafe was done by a consultant working with the county.