The Board of County Commissioners authorized the county administrator to sign an engineering services agreement with Kirk and Michaels to perform bridge inventory and inspections, not to exceed $193,200 every two years plus $1,000 per new bridge.

David Barnablust, McPherson County public works director, told commissioners the county performs required inspections of bridges and other structures and that its long-time bridge inspector is retiring this year. “McPherson County has done their own inspection for, let's say, the last 50 years. We have 460 bridges that are over 20 foot in length, and the Federal Highway and KDOT requires to inspect those every 2 years,” Barnablust said.

Barnablust described the county’s larger asset inventory: 1,140 total structures in county records, of which 460 must be inspected biennially and an additional 680 structures are inspected on a 10-year cycle. He recommended contracting out the biennial inspections while staff recruits and trains a new inspector; the county’s long-term plan is to train in-house personnel, a process Barnablust said could take several years.

Under the approved proposal Kirk and Michaels will inspect about 40 bridges per month over the contract term; Barnablust said this approach yields more consistent inspections than trying to inspect half the bridges in a single month. He told the board the company’s proposal was roughly 30% less than other bids the county evaluated. Commissioners voted in favor of authorization and the contract was approved in open session.