Floyd County working to stay ahead of deteriorating bridges

By Thomas Nelson, tnelson@charlescitypress.com

There are fewer bad bridges in Floyd County today than there were in 2017, but Iowa overall leads the American Road and Transportation Builders Association’s list of structurally deficient spans.

In 2017 there were 29 structurally deficient bridges in Floyd County.

Dusten Rolando, Floyd County engineer, plans county infrastructure projects out for five years at a time in a schedule that he files with the state Department of Transportation.

Floyd County supervisors approved the plan for fiscal years 2018-19 to 2022-23 at their board meeting Tuesday morning.

“This list is only as up to date as the DOT has updated it,” Rolando said regarding the list of deficient bridges in the state. “Since this list has been produced there were three that were replaced, two in 2016, and one in 2017.”

There are 25 bridges listed as structurally deficient in Floyd County presently.

“Of those 25 there are six that are in my five-year construction program to be replaced,” Rolando said. “In the next five years, if we reduce those, we’ll be down to 19.”

Rolando’s bridge crew tries to work on two or three structures a year, he said.

“In Iowa, we have so many bridges across the state,” Rolando said. “I think in Floyd County we’ve kept ahead of it.”

Rolando is also the county engineer of Chickasaw County.

“I know here, I’m keeping up on it (bridge upkeep) because if you’re not, you’re going to be closing bridges,” Rolando said.

In Floyd County there are a total of 165 bridges, and in Chickasaw County there are 270.

Those 165 bridges are all 20 feet or more in length, Rolando said.

The 10 cent motor vehicle fuel tax increase that Iowa passed in 2015 has been effectively utilized for maintenance of the bridges around Floyd County.

Last year the tax paid entirely for a replacement bridge on 220th Street.

“There’s no bridge fund,” Rolando said. “Next year’s bridge, which will be in the summer of 2019, is going to 100 percent paid for with that gas tax.”

There may never be a time when there are no structurally deficient bridges in the county, Rolando said, because even though they fix or replace one or two every year, every time there is another review or inspection “there’s one or two that creep on to that list.”

Most bridges that are completed today use concrete slabs and beams.

“A lot of the ones we’re running into are ones that are wood structures back to 50 or 100 years ago,” Rolando said. “Of those bridges that I called structurally deficient, 16 of them are functionally obsolete.”

Some bridges can be structurally OK but functionally obsolete at the same time, Rolando said.

“You could have a brand new bridge that is only 15 feet wide and built with brand new timber, but it’s functionally obsolete because it doesn’t meet two-way traffic, because it doesn’t serve the traveling public accordingly,” he said.

Bridges are inspected every two years on average, though older bridges or bridges with identified problems are inspected more often.

The process to inspect the bridges is complex, and both the city of Charles City and Floyd County employ outside agencies to inspect the bridges.

“We would be in a lot worse shape if I didn’t have a bridge crew that would work on these things,” Rolando said. “There are some counties that do not have a bridge crew and I don’t know how they’re getting by.”

It’s not just county bridges that have problems, either.

In Charles City the Charley Western Bridge partially collapsed the morning of April 8, 2017. An archway of the bridge partially pulled away from the structure and part of the trail surface collapsed.

Since then, Charles City has worked fast to get a replacement bridge, and bids have been accepted for demolition of the existing structure later this year.