Cities Must Decide Which Bridges Need Immediate Attention

Interstate bridges such as the one felled by a barge on Interstate 40 in Webbers Falls, Okla., can cost well into the millions to repair. But some Northwest Arkansas bridges are in dire need of five- and six-digit repairs, too.

Fayetteville Mayor Dan Coody said the state’s bridge inspectors pointed to the bridge on Dead Horse Mountain Road near Stonebridge Meadows Golf Club as the worst in his city. Nevertheless, the Fayetteville City Council voted down the option to use the state’s 80/20 cost split on the bridge repair. Coody said he was for the bridge being repaired. The bridge is still used, particularly by golfers traveling to and from one of the area’s most popular public golf courses.

In Benton County, the Flint Creek bridge on Arkansas Highway 59 between Siloam Springs and Gentry has seen its concrete deteriorate rapidly. State Highway Commissioner Jonathan Barnett said that bridge is on the state’s schedule to be repaired.

State bridge inspectors determine which bridges are structurally sound and unsound. State highway bridges are repaired entirely by state funds, but the state will pay 80 percent of repair costs for a bridge in city limits its deems structurally unsound, if the city agrees to pay the other 20 percent.

A simple one-lane addition to an existing short bridge over Sandy Creek on Main Street in Johnson ran in the neighborhood of $60,000-$75,000.

In the case of the Dead Horse Mountain Road bridge, the Fayetteville City Council decided there was “not enough useful traffic on that road,” councilman Bob Davis said. “We want to do repairs on bridges that have more of an impact on the citizens of our city. Plus, there are other ways to get on and off Dead Horse [Mountain] Road than by that bridge.”

Barnett, of Siloam Springs, believes the bridges of Northwest Arkansas are sound.

Bridges that have been repaired or widened out of necessity recently include the Arkansas Highway 62 bridge near Prairie Grove, the Arkansas Highway 45 bridge in Goshen, and the Little Flint Creek bridge on Arkansas Highway 12 near Highfill and the Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport.

“The highway department is pretty good about taking care of the bridge problems and not letting them linger for a long period of time,” Barnett said. “We just take care of it. You don’t put bridges off. We have a bridge-replacement money category. We just do it. When there are potentially safety issues at stake, you can’t put it off.”

Johnny Quinn, a principal at McClelland Consulting Engineers of Fayetteville, said a two-lane, 40-foot clear span bridge — one without standing supports underneath — and room for pedestrians to walk on the side would be about 30 feet wide. That would make for about 1,200 SF, and the total cost of construction on such a bridge would run anywhere from $110-$130 per SF. Therefore, a 1,200-SF bridge would cost about $145,000.

And the design cost of a bridge is usually another 10-12 percent on top of the construction costs. So a bridge with $145,000 in construction costs could have a total tag of about $160,000.

Regardless of the method used to repair a bridge, it is not a short-term project.

“Not hardly,” said Quinn. “For one thing, you’re working around waterways, and you have to work around the Corps of Engineers who are working with their floodways. Keep in mind you have to maintain traffic while you’re repairing or widening the bridge. So it’s not a quick turnaround.”

Barnett does feel that some of the area’s bridges are reaching the age where it’s time to consider making repairs in the near future.

“A lot of the bridges designed 40, 50, 60 years ago are structurally sound, but as time goes by and money is available, they need to be rebuilt,” Barnett said. “Many of them are not not wide enough for today’s traffic. And the weights on trucks have increased over the years. There are also some erosion problems.”

Arkansas Bridges

Location — Arkansas bridges — Structurally deficient bridges — Functionally obsolete bridges

Interstate — 905 — 14 — 79

U.S. highway — 1,847 — 65 — 380

State highway — 4,238 — 283 — 534

County highway — 4,621 — 1,013 — 792

City — 801 — 86 — 139

Federal land — 195 — 45 — 53

Othert — 12 — 0 — 2

Total — 12,619 — 1,506 — 1,979

Source: National Bridge Inventory