County engineering hires structural consultant to plan replacements for 63 county bridges

Cochise County engineering staff told supervisors Feb. 20 that the county owns about 63 bridge structures and has engaged structural engineers to develop a 20-year replacement plan.

Staff said ADOT inspects county-owned bridges every two years, and that several of the county’s bridges are structurally deficient or obsolete. Engineering staff said the county hired structural engineers (identified in the presentation as Consort Engineering) to prepare a prioritized replacement plan and load/weight analyses.

Examples given included Rucker Canyon Bridge, which staff said currently carries a 5-ton weight limit. Staff described a prior incident—Hereford Bridge was damaged in the mid-2000s—and said the county later replaced that structure using off-system bridge federal funds. Staff laid out the typical federal off-system bridge funding path: scoping grant, design grant, and a construction funding grant, a sequence that staff said can take three to five years.

Staff also noted other local bridge or culvert priorities, including culvert replacements at Leslie Canyon and a wooden bridge on Pierce Road that staff said needs either board repairs or replacement; the presentation noted the federal definition that a structure wider than 20 feet is classified as a bridge for inspection purposes.

Why it matters: aging bridge structures with load restrictions affect route availability for residents and commercial traffic and create maintenance priorities that may require federal grants and multi-year planning.

Ending: staff said the county will continue applying for off-system bridge funds and implement the prioritized replacement plan as funding allows. No formal vote or action was taken at the work session.