Lawmakers in Washington continue to struggle to agree on a transportation funding bill, a bill that would replace the current infrastructure appropriations bill set to expire at the end of September. Without the bill, construction on the nation’s bridges and roads – including Richland County’s 347 miles of highway and 360 bridges – will come to a halt.
In Richland County alone, approximately 75 bridges out of the county’s 360 are considered “functionally obsolete,” according to the Richland County Engineer’s Office. As it stands, with material costs continuing to escalate in the last 10 years, Richland County Engineer Tom Beck said the office already struggles financially.
“In the last 10 years (costs) have more than doubled, and the money hasn’t doubled,” said Beck. “So here we are, we’ve got more to do than we’ve ever had before and in equivalent dollars we have about half of what we did 10 years ago. But we’re supposed to do the job. Somehow they need to figure out how to get us enough money so we can at least be back to where we were.”
The U.S. Department of Transportation has stated that the Highway Trust Fund, which provides federal money to state and local projects, will be out of money by August if Congress does not pass an extension of the bill. Ohio receives nearly $1.5 billion from the Highway Trust Fund every year.
Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown has called for a bipartisan approach to fixing America’s highways and bridges by passing a long-term transportation bill. The current highway bill, MAP-21, expires Sept. 30.
The Richland County Engineer’s Office has two main sources for outside funds: federal funds divided between bridge and roadway improvements, and funds from the Ohio Public Works Commission. Costs are further reduced through the office’s use of other funding sources and credits from saving money.
“What I’ve put as my top priority is going after and finding these outside funds,” said Beck. “I have spent a lot of time doing that, and Richland County has really benefitted because of it. We’ve been one of the most successful counties in bringing state and federal funds back to our county. For a long time we were number three in the state for the amount of funds brought back to our county.”
According to the Federal Highway Administration, Ohio has more than 2,200 “structurally deficient” bridges. These bridges, located in all 88 Ohio counties, depend on funding from the highway bill for critical improvements and upgrades. However, if Congress does not extend the life of the Highway Trust Fund, the U.S. Department of Transportation will be forced to slow down payments to the Ohio Department of Transportation ahead of the Sept. 30 deadline for extending the current law.
Bridges needing repairs and ongoing construction jobs could all face delays if Congress does not pass an extension. According to Brown’s office, without the extension more than 109,000 Ohio jobs tied to building and maintaining Ohio’s transportation infrastructure are in jeopardy.
Five bridges in Richland County are planned for replacement by the end of 2014: Lucas-Perrysville Road, Bellville-Johnsville Road, Kaster Road which is currently under construction, and the completed Garrow and Shatzer Road bridges. A total of eight bridges will be replaced by the end of the year including three bridges the state is completing as part of the Ohio Bridge Partnership Program: two Pleasant Valley Road bridges and one bridge on Five Points East Road.
“The state has realized there is not near enough money coming to the county, so we’re not getting our bridges replaced fast enough,” explained Beck. “Because of that, Governor (John) Kasich and the state legislature has set some monies aside and they’re going to do I think 200 bridges throughout the state.”
The Ohio Department of Transportation is spending $120 million to repair 200 township, municipal and county bridges in rural areas across the state through 2016. Since Beck has been Richland County Engineer, 220 bridges have been replaced.
“You’ve got to give the governor and the legislature a lot of credit for seeing how severe and how shortfall our money supply is, and they’re stepping in,” said Beck.
State and federal law mandates an inspection of Richland County’s bridges every year, and replacements start with the bridges in the worst condition. Adam Gove, Chief Deputy County Engineer, explained the office’s engineering staff sorts through all different possibilities of construction for a bridge before determining the most efficient solution.
“We typically start with the bridges that are in the worst condition unless there are some that may be on a more crucial road with a higher volume of traffic or more important to business,” said Gove. “This year we’ve got five bridge replacements, which is lower than it needs to be to catch up with the ones that are bad out there. Typically we try to shoot for around eight to 10 replacements.”
“As we get one replaced another one falls into the replacement category,” added Beck. “We could catch up if we had enough money. Eight to 10 replacements a year is what we need to be doing to stay up with the ones falling into the replacement category. If we could get 12 to 14 a year we’d start gaining on it and reduce that number. But if we only do eight or 10, we’re not going to gain on it; we’re just going to keep up with it.”
Nine bridge replacements in 2014 may seem like a lot, but as Beck pointed out, nine bridges out of 360 is not a significant number.
“It’s a great help, but we need 10 times that,” said Beck. “It’s a big job. People don’t understand how big it is. But we’re doing a heck of a job with the short funds we do have to make it all happen as best we can.”
“You’ve got to give the governor and the legislature a lot of credit for seeing how severe and how shortfall our money supply is, and they’re stepping in,” said Engineer Tom Beck. But, he added, “As we get one replaced another one falls into the replacement category,” added Beck. “We could catch up if we had enough money.
