Thirty-seven bridge planks, valued at $2,368, belonging to the Union County Secondary Roads Department, were taken from the department’s Creston storage yard sometime between Oct. 11 and Oct. 18, according to a Union County Sheriff’s Office report.
The lot is located at 1701 Commerce Road. Union County Engineer Zach Gunsolley reported the planks missing.
“And I let the sheriff’s office know that we did not see any evidence of wheel tracks,” said Gunsolley. “No tracks, or suspicious behavior or other evidence was noticeable.”
According to Gunsolley, the yard initially held 89 planks before 37 came up missing.
The bridge planks, each 4 inches deep, 12 inches wide and 20 feet long, were to be used for a bridge project located on 210th Street, roughly 1 mile west of High and Dry Road in Union County.
Gunsolley said the Union County Secondary Roads Department occasionally fields requests to buy bridge planks, but has not done so recently.
“From time to time,” said Gunsolley, “people ask if we have any for sale, but we have not sold any lately due to the fact that our inventory has been low as of late. And we want to keep all the bridge planks for ourselves for reusing them on bridge repair work.”
According to Gunsolley, the Secondary Roads Department has not yet received any new information from the Union County Sheriff’s office with regard to the missing planks.