Carbon County commissioners are reminding motorists that the covered bridge in Lower Towamensing Township is currently closed to traffic.

On Thursday, the commissioners talked about problems while work was taking place at the bridge on Wednesday."While our maintenance crew was working with the road barriers up, there were still five vehicles that drove through the bridge," Commissioners' Chairman Wayne Nothstein said. "What does that tell you about people reading the (bridge closed) signs. No respect.""The main reason (for the closure) is the safety of our workers," Commissioner Thomas J. Gerhard said. "But then people are ignorant and ignore the signs and drive through there. You wind up getting someone hit or hurt."We ask people to be respectful of the signs," he said. "The bridge is closed until work is completed.""The less problems we have, the sooner we get the project done," Nothstein said.The 155-year-old covered bridge is being strengthened by the installation of steel height restriction bars, created by Structural Metal Fabricators of Palmerton at a cost of $13,637. Previous wooden bars were not useful in preventing oversized vehicles from going through and damaging the structure.Gerhard said that on Wednesday, there were a total of seven workers from Lower Towamensing and the county on-site removing the wooden bars and the concrete in preparation for the new bars.Work will now take place on Monday with pouring new concrete for the bars.Work should be completed within a few weeks, Gerhard said, adding that the schedule is based on the weather.In other matters, the commissioners said the annual Fall Foliage festival kicks off Saturday.Nothstein said the county has opened up Mauch Chunk Lake Park to additional parking. Visitors are asked to use the shuttle to help alleviate congestion in the downtown.If the weather is nice during the three-weekend festival, the county lot in Jim Thorpe will most likely be full by 11 a.m.The number of parking spots has been reduced because of bridge construction.