Lincoln County supervisors say that despite their best effortsthey were not surprised to hear that nearly a quarter of thecounty’s bridges could be called structurally deficient.

A bridge collapse on Interstate 35 in Minnesota last week thatkilled at least eight people and injured about 100 more has focusedthe nation’s attention on the sturdiness of bridges.

A study by the Associated Press following the disaster inMinneapolis found that 70,000 bridges of the more than 600,000bridges across the United States are “structurally deficient.”

The study also found that 23.9 percent, or 93 of LincolnCounty’s 389 bridges, are structurally deficient.

“I’m not surprised. All of (the supervisors) are working to getthem fixed. It’s just a slow go,” said District Three SupervisorNolan Earl Williamson.

Only two counties, Hinds County with 665 bridges and LauderdaleCounty with 492, have more total bridges than Lincoln County. BothHinds and Lauderdale were found to have 15 to 16 percent of theirbridges to be deficient.

“I don’t think we’re in any danger (in Lincoln County),” saidMarty Hilton, a State Aid engineer who coordinates agency programswith counties throughout South Mississippi. “There are bridges thatneed to come down, but if people will follow the posted limitsthere shouldn’t be any problems.”

Among area counties, Pike County had the highest percentage ofdeficient bridges at 32.5 percent. The study found that 80 of thecounty’s 246 bridges were deficient. Franklin County also had ahigher percentage of deficient bridges than Lincoln County, with 49of its 160 bridges, or 30.6 percent, labeled deficient.

Copiah and Lawrence counties were found to have less than 20percent of their bridges labeled as deficient. Forty-seven ofCopiah County’s 254 bridges, or 18.5 percent, received thatdesignation.

Lawrence County was found to have the lowest percentage ofdeficient bridges; but at 125 bridges, its number of bridges is farless than those of neighboring counties. The study found 19 ofthose bridges, or 15.2 percent, to be deficient.

All county bridges are inspected every two years, Hilton said,and their load-bearing capacity is determined at that time based onthe soundness of the structure and, to a lesser degree, the amountof traffic that crosses it in a given time period. Bridges thathave been deemed to be in critical condition are inspected everyyear.

Supervisors base their bridge replacement plans on thoseinspections, with adjustments each year to account for the newfindings, said Board President Gary Walker.

Although some bridges – like those under 20 feet in length – areclearly county bridges to repair and maintain, while others requirethe cooperation of state or federal agencies because of their costor their designation, he said. Many of the county’s main roads aremaintained by State Aid or the Mississippi Department ofTransportation or, as in the case of evacuation routes, the federalgovernment.

Those bridges can only be “programmed” for replacement whenstate or federal funding is available, Hilton said.

For example, Williamson said a six-span wood piling bridge onMount Pleasant Road has been closed for more than a year because hecannot secure the funding for the project. Additionally, he said,some projects are delayed by legalities because supervisors mustobtain the right-of-ways necessary on neighboring property to givethe crews the room they need to do their work.

“We’ve all got two or three programmed that are waiting on somekind of litigation,” Walker said.

Supervisors in every district have all of their bridgesdesignated at less than 50 percent sufficiency programmed forrepair, he said.

Hilton said Lincoln County is one of the most proactive insupervisors’ bridge replacement efforts.

“They had a lot of bad bridges to start with. They’ve beenreplacing them as fast or faster than any county that I’m awareof,” he said.

Williamson agreed. He cited shortcomings in the state’s methodof distributing funding under the Local System Bridge Program as ahindrance to some areas making more significant improvement.

“We could program every bridge dollar the state gets on ourbridges,” he said. “We have programmed more money than any othercounty.”

Monies in the LSBP are allocated to each county based on aformula that includes the number of total bridges in the county andpopulation, among other factors, Williamson said. Some counties,like Lincoln, are very active in the program and spend theirallotment each year.

However, some counties have not touched their LSBP funds forseveral years and have thousands of dollars banked that could beused to assist more active counties, he said. Generally, Williamsonsaid, those are counties that have few bridges.

Supervisors said they have been very active in replacing bridgesunder 20 feet in length with culverts, which last longer and arecheaper to replace. Bridges under 20 feet are generally consideredthe county’s responsibility to repair or replace.

District Four Supervisor Doug Moak said he has replaced 16 or 17bridges with culverts in the past few years and intends to reopen abridge on Gene Trail, among other projects.

Williamson said he has replaced 27 small bridges in recentyears, but still has many that need to be replaced. Bridges onCarpenter Road and Upton Trail have been programmed.

“It just takes too long to do anything,” Williamson said.

Walker said he was told to close three small bridges on FairmanLane, Newell Road and Field Lark Lane this year. All three havebeen reopened following repairs and the Field Lark Lane bridge iscurrently in the process of being programmed under the LSBP for amore extensive solution. Bridges on Tampa Trail and California Roadare also waiting for LSBP action.

Bridge replacement funds are a major topic of discussion eachyear as supervisors attempt to wrangle more funds from a tightcounty budget to put toward those projects.

The state did, however, oversee a project to replace oldrailroad bridges across the Bogue Chitto River. The old timbertrusses “were probably some of the worst bridges in the county,”Hilton said.

Although some residents objected to the size of the project, theengineer said the architects really had no choice because ofrailroad regulations targeting height above tracks and state andfederal regulations stating the maximum and minimum sloping oframps.

Those same regulations, supervisors say, are the reason thereare no intentions to replace a small bridge spanning railroadtracks on Warren Avenue in the city.

Height and ramp requirements make the project unrealisticbecause the bridge would need more space than is available at thelocation. Homes near the bridge would need to be purchased to makeroom. With crossings on other roads only a short distance to eitherside of Warren Avenue, supervisors said they see no need todisplace homeowners or go through the expense.