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DAVIDSON COUNTY -- A leading bridge historian and others applauded plans to preserve the Wil-Cox Bridge that spans the Yadkin River between Davidson and Rowan counties.

North Carolina Department of Transportation closed the deteriorating structure to vehicular traffic in April after finding exposed rebar, deteriorating concrete and deep cracks, but would make repairs to reopen it while the adjacent Highway 29 bridge is replaced.

Plans call for Davidson County to convert the bridge to a pedestrian walkway and bikeway.

Opened in 1924, the 1,299 ft. bridge looks every bit its age. But Eric DeLony, chief emeritus, of the Historic American Engineering Record, a division of the National Park Service, says from an historical perspective alone, the state's oldest standing open-spandrel arch bridge was worth being preserved.

"Whether this is the most significant or the second most significant multiple span, concrete arch truss in the country," said DeLony.

Davidson County has an agreement with NCDOT to assume ownership and responsibility for the bridge once a new Highway 29 bridge opens and the I-85 bridge project is complete, perhaps in late 2012.

The county anticipated a refurbished bridge will draw large numbers of pedestrians and bicyclists.

"As an example we have about 1,000 bicyclists in Lexington this weekend and I can just imagine having a race from Salisbury to Lexington coming across the Yadkin River in their colorful uniforms," said Guy Cornman, the county's planning director.

Typically, NCDOT would have torn down the bridge and replaced it, but in this case the agency pledged $2.5 million, the cost of demolition, to the county for maintenance and repair.

"Anytime that we can go in and work with the locals, particularly on historic preservation, we certainly want to be able to do that and we see examples of this all across the state," said Pat Ivey, NCDOT Division 9 engineer.

DeLony said next to reopening the bridge to traffic, converting it for pedestrians and bicycles would be the best use of this historical structure.

"Second to continued use, what we call continued use in the historic bridge industry, would be adaptive reuse as a pedestrian, bikeway type of structure," he said.