Small Bridges to Get Costly Fix

DIAS CREEK – Two small but often-crossed bridges on county roads need repair because they are deteriorating. Drivers know both without an engineer’s report because of the bumps and patches on:
* Hand Avenue (CR 658) bridge over Skeeter Island Creek
* Springers Mill Road (CR 643) over branch of Dias Creek
To fix both will cost about $2.5 million, according to county Engineer Dale Foster. That’s over $1 million for each bridge.
Since the Hand Avenue span is over 20 feet, it’s considered a bridge by federal regulations.
Springers Mill bridge is less than the minimum and is thus considered a “minor bridge.”
After hearing county Engineer, Dale Foster’s report Freeholder Director Gerald Thornton said that he had received numerous complaints about the Hand Avenue span.
Both bridges were the focus of an engineering study by the firm NV5, which produced a set of photographs to chronicle the degradation of them and alternatives on how they might be fixed.
By use of ground penetrating radar, which resembles a plow pulled behind a tractor, the firm showed anomalies in the roadway on both sides of the Springers Mill Road bridge. Similar anomalies were found on Hand Avenue by the bridge.
On Hand Avenue there was embankment erosion, scour holes and concrete spalls with cracks.
On the Springer’s Mill bridge, concrete spall, a broken connection, and bolt-and-joint separation were noted. There appeared to be a one-inch separation in its precast culvert sections.
Retaining walls on both were in seriously eroded conditions with failed timber wingwalls.
After hearing Foster report on the alternatives, Thornton said, “Replacing these structures with new ones is the only way to go. All the work we’ve done on our bridges is very important. Now is the right time to do it. Our bond rating is very good. The interest rate is 2.2 or 2.3 percent.
“If we do it, 75 years is a very good guarantee to protect those people coming behind us. We weren’t protected by our forefathers.”