A portion of Cypress Lake Road will be closed for a yet-to-be determined time, after damage to a support column of the small bridge that crosses Watering Hole Branch was discovered Tuesday while extricating a pickup truck from the water next to the bridge.
According to Georgia State Patrol Trooper Robbie Scott, the 911 Center received a call about noon reporting a truck in the water at the bridge located on Cypress Lake Road between Country Club Road and Old Riggs Mill Road.
“We responded, along with the Bulloch County Sheriff’s Office and county fire and EMS,” Scott said. “(We found) a black Nissan Frontier upside down in the water. You couldn't really see in the vehicle.
“We were able to get the tag information and when we entered it, it came back as a stolen vehicle reported Sunday night through Bulloch County.”
Scott said the truck was submerged in the mud and sediment in the water, which made it difficult for the tow truck to remove it from the water.
“Once we did get it to the bank, there are no bodies or persons inside the vehicle,” Scott said. “So, the investigation will be ongoing back to the registered owner who reported it stolen through the county. And from there, we'll see what it leads to as far as who may have stolen it.”
Scott said it is not known what happened or how long the vehicle had been in the water. A preliminary investigation did show “the vehicle ran off onto the north shoulder, overcorrected and struck a pillar of the bridge as the vehicle went off onto the shoulder.”
The Georgia Department of Transportation sent a regional inspector to the bridge and he found that one of the support columns that passes under the pavement was significantly damaged, Scott said.
“He inspected the bridge and determined it was structurally unfit for traffic and that it needed to be closed immediately,” he said.
Scott said the initial assessment is to set up detours from “Country Club Road to Parrish Road to Pulaski Road and back to Old Riggs Mill until DOT determines how they're going to repair the bridge and then repairs it.
“I have no estimate on when that would be.”