County bridges inspected, safe for travel

WALKER Cass County Engineer David Enblom reported to the county board Tuesday the county's bridges have been inspected and are all safe for travel.

Because the state increased some permitted truck weights, the county has imposed the former load level as a limit on some township bridges that were not built to carry heavier loads, Enblom said.

Cass's bridge inspector checks about half of the 82 county, township and municipal bridges under the county jurisdiction annually and the other half every other year, Enblom said. These include any bridge spanning at least 10 feet and made of regular bridge material or roads over large culverts.

The county maintains a wish list of bridges eventually needing to be replaced. One on County State Aid Highway 58 went off that list this year because the county and DNR matched funding to replace it in 2007.

On Tuesday the board added bridges on County Roads 107 and 120 because Enblom said there may be extra state or federal bridge funding made available following the freeway bridge disaster in Minneapolis.

All of the bridges on Cass's county road bridge replacement wish list are rated from 54.7 to 90.8 (highest quality being 100). State and federal bridge funds only are available when a bridge rating falls below 80, Enblom said.

The reason he has included the 90.8-ranked bridge on CSAH 1 is because the road in that area will be widened when it is repaved soon, making the bridge narrower than the approaching road. That will drop the bridge's safety ranking, Enblom said.

Townships and cities must match state and federal funding available for improvements. One township bridge in Wilson and one city bridge in Lake Shore rank below 50. The Wilson bridge is rated 47.5. The Lake Shore bridge is rated 22.

Neither jurisdiction has informed the county highway department they have set aside sufficient matching funds at this time to replace them, according to Enblom.