Carbon County's last remaining covered bridge that is used by traffic was struck by a vehicle again, just two months after it reopened following an extensive renovation project.

The bridge is located along Covered Bridge Road in Lower Towamensing Township.On Monday afternoon, Carbon County Commissioners discussed the most recent incident, which involved an unknown vehicle striking the height restriction barrier, damaging it."We're not sure of the extent of the damage yet," Commissioners' Chairman Wayne Nothstein said. "It's a never-ending thing."Nothstein said the incident occurred sometime last week, but the county was only notified about it Monday. A maintenance man was sent to look at the damage and reported that there doesn't seem to be any damage to the bridge, just the barrier."Here we go again," he said, adding that the county will take a second look at the bridge to see if anything else was damaged.Commissioner William O'Gurek said that maybe it is time to take Commissioner Thomas J. Gerhard's suggestion of installing steel height restriction barriers instead of the current ones."We said if it continued we would be looking at that, and I think the time has come," he said.Gerhard said that the steel bars would stop taller than limited vehicles in their tracks before they could reach the covered bridge."They wouldn't hurt the person, but it would certainly damage the vehicle," he said. "If you can't obey the height restrictions, then I think we strengthen up the supports going into the bridge so it stops happening. I would rather see that damaged then the bridge get hit."It's people are just not paying attention," Gerhard said. "You're supposed to know the height of the vehicle you're driving. It's very important when you get out there in a bus or truck or anything oversized. You're supposed to know the height of the vehicle and the height of the bridge. It's as simple as that. Read the signs and obey the signs."Nothstein said this continued problem causes headaches for not only the county, which now must file paperwork for the claim and repair the damage, but also the motorists who use the bridge."We will have to seriously look at putting something permanent up there," he said.The covered bridge, which has been the victim of numerous vehicle strikes over the past few years that caused thousands of dollars in damage, was closed to all traffic from July through Nov. 10 so crews from Professional Construction Contractors Inc. of Bethlehem could replace the open-grid steel deck and sandblast and paint the bridge. The cost of the project, $291,126, was covered by Act 13 bridge improvement funds and Act 44 funds.