Home Road Bridge has been renamed the Fred L. Stults Bridge, in honor of the former Delaware County Engineer. The Delaware County Commissioners authorized the change at their session on Monday, Nov. 18, at the request of current County Engineer Chris Bauserman. A sign memorializing the new name was unveiled later that day at the bridge, which spans the Scioto River in Concord Township.
Stults, now 88, served as County Engineer for 27 years, retiring in 1996. He resides with his wife Nancy less than two miles from the bridge.
“The community is a better place for Fred Stults having been here,” Bauserman told the Commissioners during a session attended by many friends and former colleagues of Stults. “He’s just a champion for all things Delaware County.”
In accepting the honor, Stults recalled how he negotiated with the City of Columbus to share the $9.7 million cost of expanding the bridge, which was originally constructed in 1924, then rebuilt and reopened in 2003.
“One day I was sitting in the office and I received a call from (City of Columbus official) Richard Jackson,” Stults said. “He said, ‘The City of Columbus needs to construct a raw water line from Alum Creek to Hoover, and we need your approval.’ I very quickly thought of the Home Road Bridge and I said, ‘Yes, if we can develop an agreement that the city will help in the expenses of the (Home Road) bridge.’”
As early as the 1980s, Stults also played a critical role in planning many of the road projects that have since transformed Delaware County transportation. He authored the first thoroughfare plan for the southern half of Delaware County, which laid out the rationale for Sawmill Parkway and the Home Road Extension east of U.S. Route 23.
“Fred deserves recognition as a visionary leader,” Bauserman also told the Commissioners. “So much of what we do today still has Fred Stults’ fingerprints on it.”
For more information about the Delaware County Engineer’s Office, please go to: https://engineer.co.delaware.oh.us/.
Photo of Fred L. Stults at the site of the newly renamed Fred L. Stults Bridge, on Nov. 18, 2024