Historic covered bridge to remain closed until January

NEWTON FALLS — A young doughnut-shop delivery driver from Canton, unfamiliar with his vehicle and Newton Falls, drove the box truck through the historic Newton Falls Covered Bridge on July 10, damaging trusses and beams all through the structure.

The repairs, which will cost his employer’s insurance company around $57,000, will keep the bridge closed until sometime in January, said David Rouan, spokesman for the Trumbull County Engineer’s Office, which is responsible for the bridge.

Meanwhile, Trumbull County commissioners have approved a reduction in the legal weight limit of the bridge from 12 tons to three tons to try to prevent trucks from using the bridge, Rouan said.

Work trucks of any kind were already prohibited from the bridge, and there is a sign that warns trucks to stay out, but Ryan M. Vallen, 22, of Canton, apparently didn’t realize that when he drove a box truck through the bridge at 2:30 a.m. July 10, Rouan said.

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