Sheriff’s Department to Post “Flaggers” at Hurricane Bridge Starting Today (Thursday)

If you’re planning to cross Hurricane bridge anytime Monday through Friday from seven a.m. until five p.m., be prepared to stop.
Starting today (Thursday, April 15th), County Mayor Mike Foster says the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Department will have a “flagger” on each end of the bridge to monitor traffic across the bridge, which has state posted weight limits. “We’re going to start escorting loaded trucks across Hurricane bridge in an effort to try and help our industries and our school buses get across. The way it will work, a loaded truck must stop at each end of the bridge whenever they approach it and it (bridge) will be cleared to where they are the only vehicle on the bridge and then they will proceed across. As soon as they get across, then normal traffic flow will resume across the bridge. If the trucks are not loaded, they will proceed across the bridge like they normally would (without having to stop). This way, instead of having to go by the weight limited posted on the bridge, which are 10 tons for a straight truck and 18 tons for a semi, they can now carry a normal load that they would normally carry across the bridge. However, only one truck at a time will be allowed on the bridge. Other than that, normal traffic flow will be as it has been.”
Sheriff Patrick Ray adds that “any vehicle (trucks, school buses, emergency vehicles, etc) above the posted weight limit now will have to stop and we will stop traffic on both ends of the bridge and allow that one truck to come across the bridge. Then we will re-open traffic.”
Sheriff Ray says he and his department are proud to be able to provide this service to help our local industries, school buses, emergency vehicles, and others. This, he says, will ease safety concerns and greatly benefit everyone, especially people living in the Silver Point and Rock Castle areas.
In January, the DeKalb County Commission approved a plan to provide the “flaggers” through at least September and to apply for a state grant to help recoup the county’s costs.
Under the proposal, County Mayor Foster says the county will appropriate around $20,000 to pay at least a couple of people, through the sheriff’s department, with experience in law enforcement or traffic control who would work several hours per week monitoring traffic across Hurricane Bridge.