The covered bridge in Lower Towamensing Township has reopened to vehicles.

But drivers beware, if your vehicle is larger than the height limit, you may find yourself damaging it thanks to steel headache bars that are now installed before the entrance of the historic bridge.On Thursday, Commissioners' Chairman Wayne Nothstein announced that the bridge is now open and work to install the new height restriction bars has been completed."Here is a warning to all those with anything about the 8-foot, 6-inch height," he said. "It will hit a steel headache bar now. It won't destroy your vehicle, but you will know you hit it."Nothstein said that there is a second steel bar that is set at 10-feet, 6-inches that will also stop vehicles from entering the structure. In the past a number of large vehicles damaged the bridge by continuing to drive after hitting the wooden heigh restriction bar and going through the bridge, ripping off beams as they go."If you don't stop (and your vehicle is too tall), your vehicle will be quite a bit shorter (once it hits the steel bars), but you will then make it through the bridge," Nothstein said.The county has been forced to spend thousands of dollars to repairs the bridge on numerous occasions because of drivers failing to adhere to the height restrictions.Commissioner Thomas J. Gerhard thanked Lower Towamensing Township supervisors for working with the county on this project. He also thanked the county employees who installed the beams and Michael Tirpak of Carbon Engineering for his help in the project."It came out really nice," he said. "Everything went well from start to finish with only a few snags."The covered bridge had been closed down to traffic since the beginning of October so work to install the steel height restriction bars, created by Structural Metal Fabricators of Palmerton at a cost of $13,637, could take place.