IRON STATION, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — Iron Station families have peace and hope that the final chapter in their bridge debacle saga has officially been written as they celebrate a bridge dedication ceremony Saturday afternoon.

It has been a long journey for The Amity Lane Bridge to be completed, after the existing culvert supporting the only road for dozens of families, washed out in early January.

Since the bridge was on a private road, the Department of Transportation would not fix it due to existing state laws.

This meant that the families would have to fund the solution themselves, which was looking to cost tens of thousands of dollars.

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Queen City News has followed each development, including the moment it was announced that the Mennonite Disaster Services would step in to develop and build a stronger bridge than anything prior.

The MDS received funding help from Samaritans Purse, and a $75,000 donation from the Lutheran Disaster Relief Fund to cover the cost of the project.

Though MDS announced they would help with the project, their plans were delayed by more than five months due to studies that needed to be done on the site to make sure their bridge designs would work.

Work on the new bridge began on June 3rd, and was completed within eight days by a number of volunteers.

Before the bridge opened for families, it was put through a variety of tests, which included a 50-ton fire tanker truck driving across it.

On June 29th, families, volunteers, religious groups, and politicians gathered at the start of the bridge to reflect on the monumental accomplishment.

Among those included, State Senator Ted Alexander told Queen City News who acknowledged that the hardships these families faced need to be a lesson to learn from.

He explained, “[We need to] look at if we can develop any mechanisms to help streamline the process, to help the residents do this better, and we’re going to be look at future legislation to try and do that.”

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