The bridges of Nobles County

• Bridges of Nobles County

Brian Korthals/Daily Globe A pickup crosses the bridge on County State Aid Highway 11 near 320th Street outside of Ellsworth Thursday afternoon in rural Nobles County. The bridge is rated down to 10 ton traffic.

Talk about it

WORTHINGTON — With one bridge already closed and another posted down to a 10-ton weight limit, Nobles County will be seeking funds for replacement of 10 bridges this year.

While the total cost of the projects is about $1.5 million, the money comes primarily from two separate state funds — bridge bonding money and the township bridge account. In light of the state’s budget deficit, the reality is that some of the replacement projects may have to be put on hold for a year or two.

Delays are often expected, but with a new state law to take effect at the end of this year, the impact will be noticed especially by those in the agriculture sector.

For years, implements of husbandry have been exempt from road and bridge weight limits to allow livestock and crop producers to haul their commodities throughout the county. Years of allowing the exemption have taken their toll on bridges across the state, leading the legislature last year to remove the exemption in hopes of preserving the life span of bridges.

“When you have grossly overweight vehicles using the bridge, it may not necessarily cave in on you, but … it puts a lot of stress on the different parts of the bridge,” said Nobles County Public Works director Stephen Schnieder. “(The bridges) wear out faster.”

Of the 10 bridges the county has slated for replacement, all are approximately 75 years old, half of them are located on county state aid highways and the other half are located on township gravel roads. Among them are two bridges each in Bloom, Seward and Ransom townships, and one bridge each in Leota, Larkin, Grand Prairie and Olney townships. All of the structures are slated to be replaced with precast concrete culverts, which are less expensive and less labor-intensive to install.

“In the last 30 years, Nobles County has put in a lot of precast concrete culverts to replace the bridges,” Schnieder said. “Those structures are not subject to this restriction. They don’t necessarily have catastrophic failures — that’s the good news.”

Still, the county has traditional bridges, crossing major streams, that will be affected when the exemption is removed.

“The concern is that these older bridges were not designed to handle a lot of heavy loading, and the potential is there for wearing them out faster,” Schnieder said. “You also run the risk of catastrophic failure, where the structure might actually collapse on you.”

Monitored structures

Some of the 10 bridges slated for replacement this year in Nobles County have been on the list for replacement for the past 10 to 15 years, which has led to some having posted weight limits. Last fall a bridge in Larkin Township actually had to be closed.

Schnieder said his staff monitors all of the approximately 365 bridges within the county on an annual or biannual basis. Older bridges are inspected more often.

“We monitor the structure and as long as it’s working fine we don’t move aggressively toward replacing it, even though it’s eligible,” he said. “We want to get as much life out of the structure as we can before we spend the money to replace it. If we can get another five or 10 years out of a structure and it’s still serving its function and purpose, we will let it sit there for a while.”

With the new, much larger farm implements using the roads today, Schnieder said sometimes a structure becomes as much obsolete as it becomes unsound.

Finding the money

Schneider said if the 10 bridges slated for replacement this year aren’t fully funded, they will have to “continue to serve the public in the state that they’re in.”

“We’ve got to get more life out of them, we can’t be bringing heavier loads over them so the bridge will fail before we get the money to replace them,” he added.

Nobles County has already borrowed ahead on town bridge account funds, so bonding money will be the next option for financing the projects.

“If we don’t get the bonding money, the board will need to decide if we let these structures go another year and hope that there will be some bonding money in 2010 or 2011,” said Schnieder. “Or, with these restrictions, the board may say these are key roadways and we want to keep the vehicles moving on these roads….”

In that case, the board can look to county state aid funding dollars to complete the work.

With the impossible task of monitoring all bridges in the county for violations of bridge weight limits, Schnieder said it is up to the public to follow the posted limits.

“Obviously the sheriff’s deputies and the highway patrol can’t police everybody,” he said. “We’re all on our honor to follow the rules and the laws. Even though you may not get caught, that’s not the right thing to do.

“We can get a lot more investment out of our tax dollars if we all work together,” he added.

Tags: news, noblescounty, roads, bridges