A barrier at a historic Carbon County bridge did its job and protected the bridge from damage recently.

On Thursday, Carbon County Commissioners’ Chairman Wayne Nothstein announced that the covered bridge on Little Gap Road in Lower Towamensing Township had another hit-and-run incident.

“It happened again,” Nothstein said of a larger than allowed vehicle attempting to cross the covered bridge. “We were very lucky this time.”

He said that a witness saw a Penske box truck attempt to cross the bridge, but it slammed into the steel I-beam that was placed there to stop oversized vehicles from damaging the bridge.

Nothstein said the truck in question, which fled the scene, will have severe damage to the top of it; and the I-beam also sustained a lot of damage. The I-beam is designed to stop vehicles over 10 feet, 6 inches high from entering the covered bridge.

“We have a board going across on chains to warn drivers if they hit that, they will hit the bridge, well that is about a foot above the sign, and they bent the I-beam,” he said. “It did protect the bridge. It did what it was designed to do. …

“We wanted to make sure that if someone was going to attempt to go through that bridge with a high vehicle or towing something that was high, it would damage the bar and stop the vehicle from damaging the covered bridge.”

The county is currently asking the public to come forward if they have information on the identity of the driver, who would be responsible for the repairs.

In the past, a number of large vehicles damaged the historic bridge by continuing to drive after hitting a wooden height restriction bar, knocking the bar down and then going through the bridge, ripping off beams as they drove.

The bridge was closed from July through Nov. 10, 2014, 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, $304,000, was covered by Act 13 bridge improvement funds and Act 44 funds.

In 2015, the 155-year-old covered bridge was strengthened by the installation of the steel height restriction I-beams.

Structural Metal Fabricators of Palmerton constructed the bars at a cost of $13,637.

Since then, the I-beam was damaged by oversized vehicles at least three times.