Money will help fix Christenson bridge, Ward road bridge delayed

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With several Moody County bridges needing work, the County Commission voted Dec. 5 to spend $65,000 to fix problems on the Christenson bridge west of Flandreau.

The money will maintain the bridge on 478th Avenue north of Highway 32 in the condition it is in but won’t open it up to through trucks or lift the load limit. If it’s not fixed, heavy traffic on the bridge could cause a failure like the problem that closed the Ward road bridge, engineers and highway maintenance staff say.

The Christenson bridge, built in 1957, will close for a couple weeks while it is being fixed, work that is expected to be done yet this month if weather is warm enough for welders. The work could extend the life of the bridge with its current restrictions for possibly 10 years, officials said.

Deterioration of some of the beams is advancing quicker than initially suspected, said Steve Myer, senior associate for Clark Engineering out of Watertown.

“To me, it looks like this is progressing faster than I’m comfortable with,” he said.

In addition, the commission talked with the state and another engineer from Clark Engineering about delays on the Ward road bridge, urging that the $2.1 million bridge project be put higher on a priority list so that bids can go out early next year.

The bridge has been closed since May 2016 when highway workers suspect a heavy truck went across the bridge, causing it to drop about four inches.

Commission chairman Jerry Doyle asked a state Department of Transportation representative why the plan isn’t going to bid sooner, since the state has had it since Oct. 31 and nothing has progressed. The county is putting $960,000 toward the project with the rest to be paid by state grant money.

Laurie Schultz, planning and engineering administrative program manager with the transportation department, said the state is waiting for additional design calculations from the contractor, Clark Engineering. The issue is not just with Clark, but the Department of Transportation has been having the same issue across the state, she said.

Schultz said while the state has caused some delay, the process has gone faster than the normal four years. “In one way, it’s been 18 months. That’s crazy fast in my world.”

Kevin Goff, regional manager for South Dakota with Clark Engineering, called the process frustrating and said everybody can probably take a little of the blame. “I tried to push,” he said.

Goff said the company has had plans for a similar bridge near Castlewood in Hamlin County go through Pierre and it is already under construction. Clark submitted the same kind of plan for the Ward area bridge and apparently, the review process has been evolving, he said.

“Somehow this one got on a back burner and something changed,” he said. “The finish line is still moving.”

Schultz said that each project is reviewed separately, even if they are similar. She said if the calculations are submitted by the end of this month, the project should still be on track for bidding.

Goff said Clark was notified the day before the meeting about needing more calculations, but the company will get the additional work completed. “If the deadline is the end of December, we’ll get it done.”

Once the engineers complete the application, it goes to the bridge division, where staff also are aware that the Ward road project is a priority, Schultz said. the bridge should be completed by next October or Nov. 15 at the latest, she said. This year is the second season the bridge has been closed for harvest.

Area farmer Rick Weise said he called Gov. Dennis Daugaard’s office to try and get the process moving because it is costing area farmers additional money to go out of their way, often a 25-mile detour.

Schultz said she knows the importance. “It’s farm to market. I understand that.”

After the meeting, Goff told commissioners that during the process that has been delayed, two entities cared that the bridge has been closed. “We were one of them, and you were, too.”