Heavy rain on Friday, April 24, opened a hole in the 96-year-old bridge on John Brown Road west of Princeton. A pickup carrying four people drove into it that day, and two of them were treated for minor injuries. The road is closed.

Franklin County Public Works Director Jeff Welton said the bridge was recently rated "poor" in the federal bridge inventory, though not poor enough to close. The rest of it will have to come down. The county has added the bridge to its disaster declaration to help speed up funding, and a grant application for its replacement filed last year is still pending. Welton said the bridge sees heavy use, especially at harvest.

In better bridge news, the new Texas Road bridge has reopened, five weeks ahead of schedule.

For details, see KOFO's report on the collapse.