Heavy school buses crossing low weight limit bridges continuesto cause concern for Lincoln County supervisors.

Buses and bridges were the subject of an extended discussionduring Thursday’s board of supervisors meeting. Concerns involveschool buses, newer ones weighing as much 27,500 pounds unloaded,traveling routes over some county bridges with weight limits of10,000 pounds or less.

“It’s been worrying me since January,” said District 3Supervisor Nolan Earl Williamson, who closed Bogue Chitto’soverhead bridge because of its poor condition shortly after takingoffice.

Mike Lang, county engineer associate, said bridges are built toinclude “safety factors” to support heavier loads.

Engineering officials are in the process of a bridge inspection,Lang said. They are also gathering weight distribution and otherbridge support data.

Following school bus-bridge accidents in other counties, stateofficials several years ago implemented the Local System BridgeProgram to provide state funds to help repair deficient countybridges.

Lincoln County, which has the fourth-highest number of bridgesin the state, has been among the leaders in utilizing the LSBPprogram. Williamson praised the program, but also decried thebureaucracy involved in getting bridges approved and repaired.

“LSBP is one of the best things to ever happen in the state,”Williamson said, indicating that past bridge work was good but moreneeded to be done in the future. “The problem just keeps gettingbigger and bigger.”

Regarding liability, supervisors’ attorney Bob Allen said thecounty’s legal responsibility is to inspect bridges and post weightlimits accordingly. He suggested supervisors and school officialsmeet to discuss the bus route and bridge situation.

One option raised Thursday was a bond issue and possiblyborrowing against future LSBP funds. Lang, though, said funds couldnot be obligated beyond the current board term.

“We ain’t worried about a board term. We worried about fixingbridges,” Williamson said.

District 1 Supervisor Cliff Givens suggested board members”forget beats” in their efforts to improve bridges where there areschool bus concerns.

“Anybody that’s got a (bad) bridge, we should forget ourindividuals beats and throw our support to the one with thatbridge,” Givens said.

Lang said new bridge weight limit and sufficiency rating totalsshould be available in about a month.

In other bridge-related happenings, Lang said a bid opening fora total of five LSBP projects will be held at the Jan. 2 boardmeeting. The LSBP projects include one bridge in each of thecounty’s five districts.

“That’s good news,” said District 2 Supervisor Bobby J.Watts.

Also Thursday, Lincoln County Civil Defense Director CliffordGaley presented information on the Statewide Mutual Aid Contract(SMAC) for dealing with disasters. He said it includes a stateequipment use contract price and other procedures to cleaning upproperties following a disaster.

“I think it’s a good deal for us,” said Galey, adding that SMACwould help speed up the assistance process.

Galey also planned to present the information to the mayor andboard of aldermen at an upcoming meeting.