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Meade County votes to pursue federal RAISE grant and flags dozens of aging bridges
Summary
County commissioners approved a joint‑powers agreement with the state to pursue a RAISE grant for New Underwood Road while engineering consultants presented a bridge inspection report listing multiple timber and concrete structures showing advanced deterioration and load limits.
Meade County commissioners voted Nov. 20 to enter a joint‑powers agreement with the South Dakota Department of Transportation to pursue federal RAISE grant funding for the New Underwood/Elk Creek Road corridor.
Highway Superintendent Troy Eastman and engineers from Bros Engineering presented the county’s 2024 bridge inspection report covering roughly 110 bridges and box culverts. The engineers flagged about a dozen structures with significant findings, including decayed timber back walls and wing walls, exposed rebar on older concrete culverts and local scour undermining abutments. Several structures carried reduced load limits; the firm noted one aging concrete culvert (built in 1935) and multiple timber bridges dating to the 1950s‑1980s that are reaching the end of expected service life.
Bros Engineering described maintenance needs and noted that some bridges previously received preliminary engineering grants but did not score high enough for replacement funding. For several bridges, the firm recommended monitoring, relatively low‑cost repairs (riprap, ditch stabilization), or pursuing replacement grants when scoring thresholds and detour lengths make projects competitive.
On New Underwood Road, county staff explained a multi‑step grant strategy: fund preliminary engineering to improve scoring for a later RAISE construction application. The engineering estimate quoted to prepare the project was substantial (discussed in the meeting as an engineering cost in the millions); if the engineering grant is awarded, the county’s anticipated share for engineering would be around $300,000, and construction was estimated at about $66 million. Commissioners and local and state representatives urged coordinated lobbying of federal and state legislators and neighboring jurisdictions to demonstrate regional need.
The board approved the joint‑powers agreement and directed staff to continue grant applications and outreach to DOT and federal representatives.
Next steps: county staff will continue applying for federal and state grant rounds, refine preliminary engineering materials, and coordinate legislative outreach to support the RAISE application.
