The most abused thoroughfare in Cobb County took another hit Wednesday as a passenger ban plowed through a protective beam and nearly smashed into the historic Concord Covered Bridge.
The bridge was reopened around 3 p.m., the county announced.
Though crumpled in the incident, the trusty beam appears to have once again saved the bridge itself from calamity. The driver of the van, sporting New Jersey license plates, appears to have stopped short after hitting the beam.
The driver was not injured, and their insurance will be billed for the cost of repairs, the county said.
Wednesday’s incident, the first of 2022, is the latest in a long line of collisions for the historic bridge. The protective bar was hit in December, as well as last summer by a Red Bull van.
The current beams were installed in 2018 after prior beams were also hit by multiple drivers and damaged beyond repair. The county was able to cover the $3,000 cost of the beams with an insurance settlement from one of the drivers.
Crashes continued in the years since, and in 2019 the county installed pipes hanging from chains up the road from the bridge to deter drivers with too-tall vehicles. The day after their installation, several were broken by motorists. The county installed new pipes later that year.
The bridge is the only covered bridge still in use in Cobb County. It is estimated anywhere from 7,000 to 10,000 drivers a day use the bridge to cross Nickajack Creek. The bridge dates to 1872 and was posted to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.