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MABLETON, Ga. (FOX 5 Atlanta) - The Concord Road Covered Bridge is a historic landmark in Cobb County. It's one of 13 covered bridges in the state and the most traveled. It's also one of the most accident-prone. It's been hit 11 times in less than a year.
Bob Roche lives right at the entrance of the 150-year-old bridge. He loves the history of it, he doesn't love the crashes that occur almost monthly.
Almost a year ago, Cobb County spent $800,000 in SPLOST money to restore the bridge. Since then, trucks, vans, and heavy machinery have collided with the bridge or the 7-foot high large metal barrier at the entrance a total of 11 times. That's despite plenty of warning signs leading up to the bridge.
"We're averaging one a month which is astounding to us, given all the signs that are out there," said Cobb County Spokesman Ross Cavitt.
The metal barrier is designed to break if it's hit. It's a better alternative than a truck ramming the wooden bridge that spans Nickajack Creek. But even that barrier had to be replaced just a few weeks ago.
The county believes people are paying less attention to the warning signs and more attention to their GPS devices, which may warn them of a bridge on Concord Road, but not that it's only 7-feet high. But the county is hoping they have a fix.
"We've asked some of the companies that supply data to GPS apps is there any way to warn drivers this bridge is only 7 feet tall. It's such a rare occasion there's no mechanism in place for these companies to put that data on these apps. But we work very closely with Waze on our Cobb Commute app. They tell us they've got something in production that they could roll out to potentially warn people of these low hanging overpasses," said Cavitt.
Bob Roche hopes that will make things a little less bumpy for drivers.
"For them to knock the bridge down, means they don't see the height thing, we just don't understand. We just don 't get it, it's very strange, nobody wants to crash into a bridge," said Roche.