Relief has arrived for motorists who have had to take a detour around Bridge 228 north of Seymour at Rockford.

The bridge, which has been closed since May, reopened to traffic Friday.

“They are pretty much done except for they’ve got some line painting to do,” said Jerry Ault, assistant superintendent of the Jackson County Highway Department. “They are going to put on a (temporary) center line until better weather to do what they actually need to do.”

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In mid-September, bridge superintendent John Hopkins of Anderson-based E & B Paving Inc. said work had progressed well, and he expected the bridge to reopen before the deadline, which is Sunday.

Since that time, weather hasn’t delayed the workers, Ault said.

The four-span bridge was built in 1971. When Hopkins helped take down that structure to prepare for construction, the concrete was worn and rotting, and there was a hole in girders on the west side.

“The standards of then (1970s) … were way below standards as far as the way they design them nowadays,” Hopkins said.

The new bridge is 34 feet wide, an increase of 10 feet from the old bridge. That provides safety lanes on the side so people can walk across it, and it’s also better for farm equipment crossing the bridge, he added.

County highway superintendent Warren Martin said there is a lot of pedestrian traffic with walkers and runners and people accessing Rok-Sey Roller Rink and nearby boat ramps to the East Fork White River.

When the bridge closed and detours were put in place, motorists normally taking the bridge to go in and out of the city had to seek an alternate route.

“There for a while, there were a lot of complaints, but they got used to it,” Ault said of calls to the highway department. “That’s the way it is (during road construction) anywhere in

the county.”

Brian Personett and Mindy Wineinger are among motorists who had to seek

a detour.

Personett said the situation was trying at times, especially when nearby State Road 11 was closed for roadwork and with ongoing construction on Interstate 65, including exit ramp closures.

“I think like most who cross the bridge every day, I’ll be thrilled when it’s open,” Personett said recently. “The new bridge was needed. Aside from the issues with refuse in the river, there were safety concerns with pedestrian traffic as well as traffic entering and leaving the skating rink.”

Wineinger’s detour options to get into the city were winding around to State Road 11 or going out to Cortland and taking State Road 258. The commute was more time-consuming when State Road 11 was closed.

She said the bridge closure was an inconvenience for people living and working in the area.

“I’m glad that we have a new, safe, wider bridge to drive across, but I am extremely happy for the reopening,” Wineinger said. “With the bridge opening back up, this will save us five to 10 minutes on our commute to town.”