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Minnesota disaster leads to testing of county bridges

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By Josh Sweigart, Staff Writer Updated 3:45 PM Sunday, January 30, 2011

New requirements created in the wake of the 2007 collapse of an interstate bridge in Minnesota are helping local officials identify bridges that are over their load capacity.

“I’ve got some 50-year-old bridges, they weren’t designed for current loading standards when they were built,” county Engineer John Burr said. “Plus, they’re 50 years old.”

County commissioners will vote next week on lowering the load capacity on three bridges: one each in German, Pleasant and Madison townships.

The default limit for bridges is 40 tons, which will be reduced between 30 and 45 percent for these bridges. This will affect farmers and truckers, but not commuters and school bus drivers, Burr said.

Two others have already been reduced. The engineer’s office plans to reinforce those this year.

“These other three, the repairs are more major on those,” he said. “That’s what we’re reviewing right now, whether to do a full repair or find a solution to bring them up to current loading specifications.”

“They’re not in that bad of condition, they’re not failing,” he said.

Engineers have tested more than 60 percent of the bridges in Clark County for loading capacity. This is ahead of schedule from a mandate created in 2009 after the 2007 collapse of Minnesota’s Interstate 35 West bridge.

In-house work saves money

The steel-skeleton concrete beams being created on the floor of the Clark County’s Engineer’s Office garage last week will form the legs of a new bridge being built in Madison Twp. this year.

The bridge has a ranking of two on a 10-point scale, making it one of the most dilapidated in the county. It is on Jamestown Road just north of Columbus Xenia Road.

In addition to the new requirement to test for loads, the engineer’s office still has to inspect all the bridges for integrity. Bridges ranked three or below must be replaced or fixed; there are three bridges with a 2 rating, and none with a three.

These two inspections make for a juggling act. While fixing deteriorating bridges, the engineer’s office must determine whether to bolster older bridges — which are structurally sound, but not built for modern heavy trucks — or simply put up a sign limiting loads on them.

This is made easier, Burr said, by doing as much work as possible in-house.

Making the eight beams for the Jamestown bridge costs about $1,000 each — versus buying them for $5,000 each — keeps the project at about $95,000.

At $100,000, the project would have to be contracted out, Burr said, which would likely drive the cost up to $200,000 or more.

“Keeping it under $100,000 and keeping my guys doing them, saves a lot,” he said.

The engineer’s office has about $1.5 million a year for bridge replacement and repair, much of which comes from state and federal sources.

‘We’re carrying the public’

The other two bridges ranked 2 are really large culverts near each other in the same Springfield Twp. subdivision.

For the first time this year, the engineer’s office is also making replacement culvert boxes in-house for half the usual $2,400 price tag, This means those projects will cost about $50,000 each.

“These beams right now are saving me,” he said. “If you took that away from me ... I’m gonna be in trouble.’

The three main ingredients of Burr’s bridge beams — concrete, steel and sweat — come from Benjamin Steel, Ernst Concrete and Clark County workers.

“I’m able to do this all off local suppliers,” he said, while purchased beams usually come from Indiana or Kentucky.

It keeps county workers busy in their downtime between snowplowing. And the quality is the same or better as the store-bought variety, according to county Bridge Engineer Doug Frank.

“We get excellent quality,” he said. “We make sure it’s excellent quality, because we’re carrying the public.”

Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0374.

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