Study: Six area bridges in the state's bottom 50

February 26, 2008 11:44 pm

— OTTUMWA — Iowa’s bridges are ranked the fourth worst in the nation and six of these structures are found in southern Iowa.
A study was recently conducted by The Road Information Program (TRIP), based in Washington, D.C. It examined and compared the nation’s bridges in each state.
Carolyn Bonifas, associate director of research for TRIP and author of the study, said the research was done to make sure that the drivers and decision-makers understand the conditions of these bridges.
While all the bridges listed in the report are considered “deficient,” this could be misconstrued.
“All these bridges are still safe because they are maintained and repaired on a regular basis. If they weren’t safe they would either be posted for lower weight vehicles or closed entirely,” Bonifas said.
The report found that 21 percent of the bridges in Iowa are deficient, either because of deterioration of the deck or substructure.
Six of the bottom 50 bridges in the state can be found in southern Iowa — four in Jefferson County; two in Wapello County.
Ingrid Teboe, field services coordinator for the Iowa Department of Transportation’s Fairfield office, said there are plans for the four named bridges in Jefferson County that are featured in the report.
The four bridges are: Mitchell Creek Bridge, ranked 12th in the study; Burlington Northern Santa Fe Bridge, ranked 25th; Big Cedar Creek, ranked 36th; and Shirtz Creek, ranked 37th. All four bridges are located off U.S. Highway 34 near the new bypass, outside of Fairfield.
“The four bridges are coming up for replacement after the [Fairfield] bypass is completed. If we were to repair them before the bypass was finished, it wouldn’t do much good,” Teboe said.
The bypass is scheduled to be completed this November and the bridges will follow soon after.
“I think we will be having a bid letting for the four bridges in January 2009,” Teboe said.
She said while there’s no doubt the bridges are in need of repair, the structures are safe.
“These bridges are not a safety hazard. The list is very misleading. What we call deficient may be just surface level damage or other routine repairs,” she said.
If there are repairs that are needed, she said, the DOT does what it needs to take care of it. She said they use the list as a way to keep track of structural improvements that need to take place.
In Wapello County, there are two structures that are on the list — the Cedar Creek Bridge, ranked 22nd in the study, located off 100th Street, and the Wapello Street Bridge, ranked 45th, located along U.S. Highway 63 within Ottumwa.
IDOT Resident Construction Engineer Scott Sommers said work is under way on the Wapello Street Bridge.
“There is a current contract to repair stuff on that bridge and the state is going to do a bridge deck overlay this summer. They completed a lot of miscellaneous patching on the substructure this fall. After the work is done this summer, that should bring the deficiency rating back up,” he said.
Sommers agreed the list can be misinterpreted.
“The list is just a rating [the state] uses to establish the conditions vs. other bridges. A lot of times we see in the ratings that there is nothing wrong with bridge, but doesn’t meet updated standards,” he said.
Of course, bridge repairs require money. It’s an issue Iowa legislators have been discussing during this year’s legislative session.
“The problem is the revenue coming out of the road use tax fund has been stagnant for the past couple years, while the cost of constructing these bridges has skyrocketed,” said state Sen. Tom Rielly, D-Oskaloosa, chairman of the senate’s transportation committee.
The state, he said, has not been able to keep up with cost of maintaining roads and bridges. Last time the Legislature made adjustments to the road use tax fund was nearly 20 years ago in 1989.
He said the House and Senate are both looking into ways to increase the road use tax fund and jump-start revenues.
One consideration is to increase pickup truck registration fees. Right now, all pickup trucks carry a $65 registration fee. The Iowa House bill that is now in the state Senate will look at handling pickup trucks the same as any other vehicle and tax them according to make and model.
In previous years there have been attempts to gain revenue by eliminating some of the DOT’s assets.
“Since 2000, the DOT has had 557 less employees, they have had to close 12 field engineering offices, they’ve closed 27 maintenance garages, they have 100 less vehicles,” Rielly said. “We are trying to free up money to fix the roads and bridges. We managed to free up about $35 million of road construction money at that time.”
But now, the senator said the state cannot eliminate any more positions or close any more offices or there won’t be enough workers to construct, repair or design the structures.
“There are no easy answers for this situation,” Rielly said. “Nobody wants to be taxed and we don’t want to tax people, but we have to come up with the money somehow.”
Scott Niles can be reached at (641) 683-5360 or via e-mail at sjniles@mchsi.com.

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