The Carthage Press in Carthage, Mo., posted a transcript of a question-and-answer session at a Carthage Emerging Leaders meeting with City Administrator Tom Short.
Most of the questions dealt with an upcoming Carthage Capital Improvements Tax initiative that will be voted on Tuesday. A few questions dealt with the eventual fate of Carthage’s Oak Street Bridge, aka Whee Bridge, aka Tickle Tummy Hill. Short’s comments provided clarity about the bridge’s future:
Is the Walnut Street Bridge really necessary, couldn’t we just take out the bridge and keep the Oak Street bridge and do away with that one?
They are also in the process of trying to close down as many at-grade crossings as they can and they prefer stuff above their right-of-way as opposed to going across it. One of the options we had talked about, if we can get them to contribute so much to the project, that we would consider shutting down some of these other bridges. We have to keep Oak Street, Oak Street is Route 66, and that’s a current MoDOT enhancement project. We do have some funds from the state, but because of the railroad, the price has shot up about three times its original estimate. It would be an inconvenience to close any of the bridges and the railroad will not allow us to replace a bridge with an at-grade crossing.
On Oak Street, are you thinking of just repairing and not replacing the Oak Street bridge since it is historical?
It has to be replaced. We can just do little stuff that will not change its load limit but it’s not going to serve anybody purpose. The fire trucks still won’t be able to cross it because they are about twice as heavy as the load limit. The engineers to have a design for a new bridge and it’s one of those kinds of concrete monolithic ones and it’s higher. One of the things the railroad requires is that the elevation of the bridge be higher and that means the approaches will have to be increased so the hump in the bridge will be taken out.
That Oak Street Bridge, it’s the Whee Bridge, it’s iconic to Carthage, and in changing that, is it just going to be another boring flat bridge?
Well it won’t be flat, but it won’t be as severe an arch. It will be flattened out some. We drove over it the other day with the people from Drury and we had our driver drive as fast as he dared to give them the feeling everyone feels when they go over it.
In case you’re wondering about the bridge’s curious nicknames, the bridge’s steep apex causes an unsettling sensation as you drive on it, hence the “tickle tummy” or the “Whee!” I’ve always wondered whether it was a safety hazard, but it’s surprising how many generations of Carthage residents are fond of it.
Alas, simply because it can no longer even support firetrucks, it appears the 90-year-old bridge will be replaced, and its unique sensation will likely be blunted, if not eliminated altogether.
(Photo courtesy of Rod Harsh)