What is the average cost to replace a bridge?
That was a question raised on Monday by a District 4 homeowner during County Engineer Ron Cassada’s update to the Sunflower County Board of Supervisors regarding the status of the county bridges.
Pastor Tim Howell was on the agenda to talk about road conditions in the South Wade Road area, but during Cassada’s discussion with the county officials, Howell posed the query and Cassada responded, “it depends on what method is used. It could be anywhere between $250,000 to $400,000 depending on how big it is.”
Cassada explained that the cost also depended on the types of funds being used and the regulations involved. Some small bridges that the county plans to fix can be repaired using tanker cars and he said that cost could range from $30,000-$50,000 and up to $450,000.
Howell then inquired how much the bridge budget is per year.
“Well, that’s normally not used to replace the bridges, that’s used for just maintenance,” Cassada said.
Howell proposed that since the county is only looking at $4 million or $5 million to replace the structures, they should just go ahead and do that and use the annual allotted amount to pay on a bank note.
“I don’t understand why you don’t just go ahead and do it,” he said.
Donald explained that borrowing $5 million would cause them to increase the millage and it can only be raised to a certain limit and the county is nearly at its borrowing threshold.
Cassada added, “what they were hoping is that the legislature would do something with the gas tax, that’s the fairest fee in the state.”
He explained that the county was trying to stay away from increasing the millage because that would go 100 percent to the ad valorem tax and that would put the burden on the “poor landowners” to bring the bridges back into shape.
Cassada told Howell that the county has really been juggling to try to spread their funds around to do as much as they could.
Howell was placed on the agenda to express his concern over the condition of South Wade Road. He said he has to travel that route going to and from his home on Barton Road. He said that he was not there for restitution but simply to ask for help in alleviating a continuous problem.
He said the issue was not just related to alignment and tire wall issues with his vehicles but he is also having to cautiously wrap his horses’ legs while transporting them because of the jostling around from the potholes and dips in the road.
He mentioned his proposed intent to buy his wife a new car but noted that she refused, saying there was no way she would buy a new car to drive on that road.
He is asking the county to consider zipping South Wade like they did Barton and Skelton roads or at the least repair the potholes so that they will stay repaired for a while.
Supervisor Anthony Clark said plans are already in the works to zip that road before the year is out and he asked for Howell’s continued patience.
In his report, Cassada said the county’s bridge inspections have been completed and no new bridges had to be closed.
His report contained information on the three bridge projects being done with county funds on North Sheffield Road, Sunflower Road and East Minot Road.
He reminded them that the state-aid project, the College Avenue bridge in the city of Indianola, is ready to start, but still waiting on funding due to the money being spent on federal bridge inspections.
There will be a pre-construction conference on March 21 for the Park Avenue project in Drew and work is expected to begin by the end of the month.
The LSBP project on Gwin-Lipnick Road is complete, West Minot Road is on hold to be advertised, and they are waiting on the right-of-way signatures for Mallette-Jones Road. High water levels are hindering the start of some projects and other construction starts are scheduled for this summer.
Approximately 32 bridges have been closed in the county within the past year.
Board President Glenn Donald said there might be a need to get a short-term loan to cover the cost of repairing a few necessary bridges rather than depleting the road and bridge fund budget. The county expects more revenue about mid-year from the gasoline tax. “Usually we use that money to pay the bridge fund back, Donald said.
Donald then injected that he wishes the state would entertain the idea of establishing toll roads to help raise funds as other states have done.
