BROWNSTOWN

The Franklin company that walked away from a $1.1 million project to renovate a 140-year-old covered bridge in central Jackson County earlier this year recently returned to the site.

Workers with Duncan Robertson Inc., however, only remained at the historic Shieldstown Covered Bridge along County Road 200N in Hamilton Township long enough to cover the open sides of the bridge.

“They were here last week to put wrap on the structure of the bridge to keep it from deteriorating,” county highway Superintendent Jerry Ault said.

And the company only did that because of orders from the Indiana Department of Transportation, Ault said.

Duncan Robertson was awarded a $1.1 million contract for the project in early 2015, and the work had a completion date of July 31 of this year. The work, which includes replacement of some of the wood beams and roof and replacing the joists under the bridge, is far from complete and the company is incurring fines at the rate of $1,500 a day.

The fines now total more than $200,000, county attorney Susan Bevers told county commissioners during their meeting Tuesday night at the courthouse annex.

For the rest of the story, read Friday’s edition of The Tribune.