From Staff Reports
Cass County's highway engineer says the numbers quoted in statewide reports concerning Indiana's bridges would appear to be out of date.
One of the lowest ratings on the list went to the bridge carrying County Road 250S over the Conrail tracks. Coblentz said that bridge has been closed since 2003.
Another of the 12 bridges on the list was the one carrying Logansport Road over Williams Ditch, but Coblentz said that bridge was replaced last month.
Another bridge on the list, the one carrying County Road 450N over Twelve Mile Creek, was replaced two years ago, and another, the bridge carrying Davis Street over the Eel River, had its deck replaced last year.
A third, the bridge carrying County Road 825E over the Wabash River, is now under construction, as is the bridge carrying Bartlett Street over Goose Creek. Both have an anticipated completion date of October.
The county has already sought bids to replace the deck on a bridge carrying County Road 450E over the Eel River.
The bridge carrying Center Street over Fredericks Ditch is scheduled for replacement next year, and Coblentz's office is already negotiating a contract. The bridge carrying County Road 650N over Strubhar Ditch is also scheduled for replacement as part of that same project.
The bridge carrying County Road 550E over Big Rock Creek, she said, is scheduled for replacement in 2009. That bridge, she said, is on a dead-end gravel road leading to a single home.
The bridge carrying County Road 900W over Hancock Ditch is on the list mostly because of what Coblentz described as poor geometry. The county has no plans for replacement at this time, she said.
The bridge carrying County Road 700W over Crooked Creek is scheduled for minor repair this year.
"Cass County is rated among the highest in the state for sufficiency ratings even though we are ranked in the lowest among the state on dollars/bridge we have available," Coblentz said. "Our primary concern at this time is with structures less than 20 feet in length. Therefore, we will be concentrating our resources in that area."
As the Cass County numbers indicate, many of the reports available for analysis are based on information that is out of date.
"These numbers would appear to be at least two years old," Coblentz said.
The Associated Press on Friday examined a 2006 report from the Federal Highway Administration and found that 2,066 of the state's 18,361 bridges were ranked structurally deficient.
Only 252 of the deficient bridges are along highways or state roads controlled by the Indiana Department of Transportation, the agency said, leaving the rest of the repairs to counties.
Coblentz, who is president of the Indiana Association of County Highway Engineers and Supervisors, said more funding would help counties in their efforts to take care of those bridges.
"I think we need more money right now - we needed more money 10 years ago," she told The Associated Press.
Indiana receives $70 million in federal funding annually for bridge repair and maintenance. The state uses about 70 percent of that money on the 5,701 bridges along state roads and highways, while 30 percent goes to counties for their bridges, INDOT said.
Department spokeswoman Megan Tsai told The Associated Press that federal, state and county leaders try to spend wisely - keeping bridges in good shape without wasting taxpayer money.
"It's a balancing act between fiscal responsibility and safety," Tsai said.
But the counties' share of federal funding doesn't go far, so counties use gas tax money and sometimes property tax funds to help keep bridges in decent shape. When counties can't afford maintenance and a bridge falls into disrepair, it's closed for safety.
David Bottorff, executive director of the Association of Indiana Counties, told AP his organization would push for more road repair money to keep bridges open.
"It's a safety issue, it's an economic development issue and obviously it's a convenience issue for taxpayers," he said.
It can be difficult for county governments to justify spending millions on a bridge that may only be used by a few people, said Kumares Sinha, a professor of civil engineering at Purdue University. But when bridges are listed as structurally deficient, he said action needs to be taken.
"There are many local bridges needing attention although they are only infrequently used," he said. "That doesn't mean you can ignore them."
The state's Major Moves project could pump some extra cash into bridge repair accounts, Tsai said. INDOT estimates that hundreds of bridges will be rehabilitated during the 10-year plan, and local governments can use their cut of Major Moves distributions to pay for bridge repairs on their roads.
Bridges are typically judged structurally deficient if heavy trucks are banned from them or there are other weight restrictions, if they need immediate work to stay open or if they are closed. Such bridges are considered in need of considerable maintenance, rehabilitation or even replacement.
But just because a bridge falls into that category does not mean it is dangerous, Tsai said, and INDOT would not allow the public to use a bridge considered unsafe.
Gov. Mitch Daniels on Friday ordered inspections on 13 Indiana bridges designed with characteristics similar to the one that collapsed in Minnesota Wednesday.
Nationwide, at least 73,533 of 607,363 bridges listed, or about 12 percent, were classified as structurally deficient - the same designation inspectors gave to the Minneapolis interstate bridge that collapsed.
Repairing the nation's bridges considered structurally deficient would take at least a generation and cost more than $188 billion. That works out to at least $9.4 billion a year over 20 years, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers.