Federal funds help county repair bridges

Thursday, June 24, 2004
Jerry Dale, left, and Phil Gragg, survey the grade at the site of the new bridge on the stretch of county road known as 13 curves. They are employed by Snyder Bridge Company of Joplin.

By Lynn A. Wade

Nevada Daily Mail

Vernon County has 252 inventoried bridges -- spans that are at least 20 feet long and are regularly inspected. "That's just the ones that are that size. There are probably as many again that are smaller," said Vernon County Southern Commissioner Bonnie McCord.

The county's bridges are in various conditions, with some badly in need of repair or replacement.

Recently, the county replaced a the bridge at a location locally known as 13 curves, west of Route BB. The site has also suffered "extensive stream bank problems," McCord said, which may still need to be addressed. Although the primary bridge structure is in place, erosion to the stream bank and damage to riprap at the bridge site are under evaluation, she noted, and property owners abutting the bridge site have cooperated with the county's effort to make the bridge replacement an improvement over the prior situation.

The bridge itself was replaced at a cost of $266,589.89, but 80 percent of the money comes from federal funds, and the remainder was paid for with credits the county already had earmarked to pay for such bridge work.

Northern Commissioner Neal Gerster added that this is the 30th bridge improvement using such federal funds, and two of the projects were accomplished within the city of Nevada using the county's bridge funding mechanism.

Commissioners are also working to repair a bridge in the Northern District. "We had that one scheduled for repair ... when the inspectors came, and shut it down immediately. It's closed to through traffic," McCord said. That bridge spans the Marmaton river, north of Highway 43/54, west of Nevada.

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