MoDOT Assistant Bridge Engineer Joseph Haggard told the Warren County Commission all but five of Warren County’s bridges were in good condition, with only one in need of repair. The report was a part of routine inspections of the county’s infrastructure. 

“Your overall bridge program is, in my opinion, very good,” said Haggard. “I didn’t have to close any structures this inspection cycle and pretty much all the inspections were completed that need to be completed here.”

According to Haggard’s assessment, only one bridge in the county currently requires repairs, bridge 1390010 located on Bluff Road near Bluff Valley Drive. He said the “deck” of that bridge is saturated, meaning it is taking in water, and it is not drying. The “deck” is an engineering term for the upper surface of a bridge. 

“I lowered the rating because the underside of the deck is saturated, essentially that means it’s staying moist all the time,” Haggard said. 

Fortunately, Presiding Commissioner Joe Gildehaus said, the county was already planning on repaving Bluff Road this year and it would be easy to incorporate whatever fixes were necessary into that project. 

“That’d be a good time if we have to fix that there. We’re going to be repaving that road this year anyway,” said Gildehaus. 

Haggard recommended what he referred to as a “burning” or “wearing” surface with the existing overlay which he said would help to seal the road surface allowing the underlying moisture to evaporate harmlessly. 

“I’ve seen it  on state bridges where we put an asphalt overlay on the bridge deck,” said Haggard. “And make sure the overlay is set up so that it’s not going to affect it’s structural capacity and then it seals that deck up so the water isn’t penetrating through it and then it dries up.”

He continued saying that the other four structures that he rated in poor condition were not rated for a high enough weight to require repairs at this time. 

Haggard also provided an overall assessment of the health of the county’s bridges stating that there are only nine structures in the county that are over 50 years old and seven that are under 10 years old and 35 falling within 20 years of construction. 

“For 30 bridges to be in good condition, that’s really good,” said Haggard. “There’s not many counties I visit that I can sit there and say, you’ve got this many bridges, and one of every three bridges is in good condition.”

The final note in Haggard’s report was a change in the MoDOT regulations for bridge inspections stating that any bridges rated a three or lower will require annual inspections instead of biannual inspections. Thankfully the bridge on Bluff Road was rated a four and does not fall under the purview of the new regulations. 

“So essentially all the bridges you have, I just have to inspect them every two years,” said Haggard.