SHELBY — A 64-year-old steel bridge on Smiley Avenue in Shelby will be replaced in 2023 at an estimated cost of $988,180.
Richland County commissioners voted Thursday to authorize county Engineer Adam Gove to seek bids for the project, scheduled to begin in the spring or summer of 2023.
Work is scheduled to be completed by October 2023.
Though the bridge is in the city limits, the bridge is the county’s responsibility under state law.
ORC Section 5591.02 says, “The board of county commissioners shall construct and keep in repair all necessary bridges in municipal corporations on all county roads and improved roads that are of general and public utility, running into or through the municipal corporations, and that are not on state highways.”
Gove said his office has received a grant from the Ohio Dept. of Transportation that will fund the project.
He said the bridge, constructed in 1958, has a span of 66 feet and is a steel truss structure with steel decking and asphalt on top.
“There have been a couple of major rehab projects on the bridge (the last coming in 2012), but it has reached the end of its useful life,” Gove said.
It will be replaced with a composite pre-cast concrete box beam bridge with a concrete deck over the top. The engineer said the span of the bridge will be increased to 84 feet.
Gove said Smiley Avenue is heavily traveled with cars, buses and trucks. Shelby City Schools are located along Smiley Avenue, for example.
“We have several hundred to a 1,000 vehicles per day crossing the bridge, probably,” he said.
According to the website bridgereports.com, the current bridge was rated “poor” overall during an inspection in 2018, including “serious” issues with its substructure.
Bids for the project are due by Oct. 27 at 10 a.m. through www.bidexpress.com
