With Showman Bridge closure, Licking fire departments adjust to ensure prompt response

Licking County fire departments impacted by the closure of the Cherry Valley Road bridge have made adjustments to how they will respond in an effort to reduce any increase in response times.

The city of Newark recently announced the indefinite closure of Cherry Valley Road at the deteriorating Showman Arch Bridge, three years before the planned opening of an alternate route and new bridge. Recent inspections prompted the Federal Administration and Ohio Department of Transportation to recommend the city close the road immediately for public safety.

The city is currently seeking a short-term solution to the closure, but the costs of a long-term solution keep increasing. The bridge could remain closed until 2025 when the alternate route and new bridge is expected to be completed. The recommended detour is Ohio 16 to Ohio 79 to West Main Street.

Newark Fire Chief Brandon Metzger said their agency had made preparations for when the bridge was going to go out of service.

"We knew this was coming. Eight months ago, we started to work with mutual aid agencies, specifically Granville, Heath and West Licking in preparation for the bridge to be closed. Just so we can address any issues with response, not only with the city, but getting mututal aid to areas as well," Metzger said. "The only surprise was we didn't know it was going to happen that day."

Metzger said their department worked with Granville Township since they're the primary agencies affected by the closure.

The chief said the department began working on an alternative plan in March or April and since that time, Newark police and fire have responded to 44 emergency calls in the north corridor of Cherry Valley Road.

"Thankfully in most cases, it's not an area that consumes a lot of emergency resources. The data reflects that," Metzger said. "We're prepared. It's obviously a concern. We want them to rest assured we're prepared for that. The data doesn't document any concerns for extended response times to get there."

Metzger attributed that to their relationship with Granville Township fire and their willingness to help in Newark's time of need.

Although their department doesn't have major concerns about the closure's impacts to their response times, Granville Township Fire Chief Casey Curtis said the department changed its run cards to help with mutual aid partners. Run cards determine which firefighting agency is first dispatched to an emergency scene. The changes Granville Township made will instead have them relying on the closest agency based on mileage and drive time.

"We pre-planned an alternatve access to the hospital, which is one of our primary responses to the area," Curtis explained. "We also have pre-planned depending on the location, the best routes to get to that end of Newark in case Newark is calling us for mutual aid."

Curtis said the majority of the times their department goes to Licking Memorial Hospital, they would ordinarily be crossing Cherry Valley Road. He said they now instead take Church, 30th and Main Streets.

According to data provided by the department, Granville Township fire has responded to an area that could be impacted by the bridge closure 12 times this year. Seven of those calls, he said, the bridge closure would have impacted them.

Curtis also expressed a concern about where the traffic that would normally cross the bridge will be going instead. He questioned whether it would delay their emergency response if the traffic goes down James Road or Union Station Road instead of the posted detour.

"There's no answer to that yet. We haven't had anything with impact noticed. Traffic has to go somewhere. If there's not going the detour, it has the potential to put a lot of traffic on smaller roads," Curtis said.

Metzger agreed the main challenge of the bridge closure has been organizing existing commercial traffic in the area. He said with schools and a high amount of industries with commercial traffic in the area, it was an issue. He said they've been asking local businesses who are affected to direct heavy duty traffic through certain avenues instead of letting them go wherever they see fit.

West Licking Joint Fire District Assistant Chief Joe Krouse said their department doesn't have too many concerns about the Cherry Valley Road bridge being out because they have multiple options.

"The main reason we would be going that direction is for transport to Licking Memorial. With that, if we were coming from Hebron, or coming from the south, we would not even be utilizing that bridge," Krouse said. "If we were coming from the west, we would generally use the Thornwood Crossing interchange, we would just go up 30th Street..."

If their department is requested for mutual aid, Krouse said it may impact their route. But he explained, they're dispatched via a GPS system.

"Once the dispatch center lists the bridge as being closed, the computers automatically recalculate the closest trucks," he said. "Physically, we don't have to change anything with our run cards because the computer generates the run cards based on the trucks' GPS."

Granville Exempted Village Schools has also made adjustments to some of their bus routes that are affected by the bridge closure.

The district has rerouted five buses as a result of the closure. District Superintendent Jeff Brown said now buses exit Ohio 16 at River Road to get students to and from the Park Trails subdivision. Buses then turn from River Road south onto Thornwood Drive and then west onto James Road, which dead ends into Ohio 37.

This article originally appeared on Newark Advocate: With Showman Bridge closure, Licking fire departments adjust