The Brown County Commissioners have awarded contracts for five bridge repair projects to be completed by late this fall, and a date for paving has been set for three county roads.
Enneking Pressure Cleaning will redo the overlays on four bridges: on Sprunica, Christianburg, Lower Schooner and Hurdle roads.
A bid for $338,485.20 from CLR Construction was also accepted on May 19 to reconstruct the bridge on Grandview Road that goes over Salt Creek.
“We’re going to tear that superstructure off, put on all new beams, deck, approaches and guardrails,” Highway Superintendent Mike Magner said.
Enneking Pressure Cleaning’s work on the Sprunica and Lower Schooner bridges will cost $30,104. The bridge overlays on Christianburg and Hurdle will be redone for $44,899.
Three other companies had put in bids for the projects that were taken under advisement at the May 5 commissioners meeting. Awards were given at the May 19 meeting.
Four other companies had bid for the Grandview Road bridge project. Due to busy schedules this year, contractors were given two options: to complete the work by the middle of August or to finish in November at a better price if they could find time in their schedules, Magner explained.
All of the projects are to be completed by Nov. 1 based on the bids that were awarded.
Problems with bridges are often found during inspections. County bridges will continue to be inspected regularly by USI Consultants after the commissioners approved a three-year contract with the company on April 21.
Magner said the contract cost less this time because inspections in the next three years will not include recalculating all of the weight limit capacities based on new truck axle spacing. That had not been required before by the federal government.
The county will receive 80 percent reimbursement from the Federal Highway Administration to cover the contract.
In 2018, USI Consultants reported to the commissioners that 14 bridges needed to be replaced, six needed to be rehabilitated and decks needed to be replaced on three.
The contracts that were awarded include some of these bridges.
The 2018 USI report estimated that replacing 14 bridges over nine years would cost $7.5 million. The cost to rehab six bridges would be $1.8 million and the deck rehabilitation or replacement of three bridges was estimated at $625,000.
At the time, Magner said the total price tag was likely to go down because some projects will be done locally and not to federal standards. A bridge is any structure that spans 20 feet. Those are included in the report from USI.
Paving updates
AllStar Paving is set to begin paving on Becks Grove, Mt. Liberty and Lick Creek roads — weather permitting — on June 14, Magner reported during the June 2 commissioners meeting.
Last year, the county received $1 million from Community Crossings. The plan was to use it to pave all of Becks Grove Road from State Road 135 to the county line; Mt. Liberty Road from Bellsville Pike to Rinnie Seitz Road; and the southern end of Lick Creek Road south of Cottonwood Road to State Road 45.
Those projects must be completed before the county can apply for 2021 Community Crossings funding later this year to pave more roads next year.
At that meeting, Magner said his highway crew had been busy repairing parts of Ford Ridge and Beech Tree roads along with storm damage on Persimmon Ridge Road.
Magner said he had given the commissioners a draft of new paving priorities, but it was not ready for public release yet. He said he was looking at what work can be done with state and local funding if the county continues to receive $1 million in Community Crossings funding.
“It would help with the planning process if we had a better idea from the state on what we will be getting every year, because if don’t get that million, I have to back up and figure out priorities again,” he said.
The commissioners also plan to approach the county council later this month about taking out a $3 million capital improvement loan with the plan being to put $1 million of it aside to cover paving costs in the county.
The $2 million capital improvement loan the county took out in 2018 is set to be paid off this month. The commissioners plan to go for $3 million this time around due to low interest rates, commissioner Diana Biddle said.
According to Magner’s report, there are 112 miles of hard surface roads that need repaved. The county has more than 200 miles of paved roads total.
“If we get a grant this fall and capital improvement loan, then we add more to pave this fall,” Magner said.
Biddle asked Magner to put together a list of roads to be paved with the extra $1 million from the capital improvement loan, assuming Community Crossings grant funding will be received for the next few years, which could be presented to the council by the next commissioners meeting.
Biddle said there is also a challenge in finding contractors to do the paving work with larger, higher-paying state projects going on.
“We had a bid from a company we had done business with in the past. I swear to you, they overbid the project because they didn’t want to deal with coming to Brown County to do our little project,” she said.
Material prices increasing could also cause problems, Magner added. He said that it now takes $129,000 to pave a mile of road instead of $100,000.
At the June 2 meeting, two residents from Grandview Road asked about the possibility of paving Grandview and Sawmill roads. They asked about the process to prioritize roads to be paved and the standards used to pave roads.
Paving standards are designated by the state, Biddle said.
The county users a PASR 1 to 10 rating system for scoring road conditions. The rating system is administered through the Local Technological Assistance Program and Purdue University, Biddle said.
“When you’ve got 150 miles of road that all score 1s and 2s, it’s hard at that point to differentiate what’s the highest priority,” she said.
Using the PASR rating to do an asset management plan is required for Community Crossings applications.
“Paving roads is not a popularity contest. It comes down to numbers and money,” Biddle said.
