County engineering team reports storm damage, flags Nevins Bridge as top repair priority

AS Engineering presented a county bridge inspection report and a summary of storm impacts, saying most bridges inspected were passable but two required special attention. Joe Clark, the project manager and team leader for the inspection team, said, "So this year, we had a 169, inspections." He and colleagues identified Nevins Bridge, Connolly's Ford and Portland Mills among the highest priorities for repair or closure.

Consultants told the board new federal coding guidance changed how decks and superstructures are rated, moving some spans from "fair" into "poor" and increasing the number designated "scour-critical." The team said riprap installed without documented hydraulic design or without a 16-year in-place history must still be labeled scour-critical under the revised federal policy, which effectively doubled the county bridges flagged for closer inspection. The firm warned that scour-critical designation increases inspection frequency and can move bridges into annual (12-month) review cycles.

Consultants also reported evidence of heavier-than-posted loads on some structures: they described an instance near a railroad-flat-car bridge where a loaded log truck caused measurable girder deflection. "Those girders deflected," the presenter said, noting that some spans are experiencing loads they were not designed to carry. The firm recommended the county begin programming repairs or replacements for structures where deterioration or overstress was observed and offered to assist with asset-management documentation for grant applications.

The presentation closed with an offer to deliver the bridges asset-management plan and a maintenance-item spreadsheet (by bridge number and by work type) to help highway staff track repairs and coordinate interventions. The board did not take a formal vote during the presentation; the consultants were asked to provide deliverables and to help prepare any grant applications that the county chooses to pursue.