Troubled bridge replacement extends driver detours April 25, 2021 FacebookTwitterEmail CATAULA, Ga. (AP) — A bridge replacement gone awry is meaning a longer delay for drivers near Columbus. Construction started in September 2019 on a replacement bridge on Fortson Road, south of Hamilton. The bridge closed in February 2020 and was supposed to reopen in mid-2020. The previous bridge was 62 years old and had serious structural problems. But the Ledger-Enquirer reports the bridge isn't now projected to reopen until June, after Georgia Department of Transportation officials found the bridge's concrete deck wouldn't bear the required loads. The state instructed Baldwin Paving Co. of Marietta to remove and replace the deck.