State, county bridges routinely inspected
Staff reporter
Americans could barely believe their eyes two weeks ago when a large truss bridge in downtown Minneapolis, Minn., collapsed.
A bridge that carried more than 140,000 motorists each day collapsed without warning Aug. 1, sending vehicles and their drivers into the Mississippi River.
This particular bridge was a steel arch deck truss bridge that was built in 1967. It was 1,907 feet long with the longest single span of 458 feet. It was 108 feet wide, enough for eight lanes of traffic. The bridge was 64 feet above the 390-foot wide Mississippi River.
According to Kansas Department of Transportation, there are six deck truss bridges with similar components to the Minneapolis bridge — five in the Kansas City area and one in Atchison.
This week inspections are beginning on those bridges, beginning with one on I-70 in Kansas City.
The intercity viaduct which crosses the Kansas River and railroad tracks, comprises three separate bridges.
According to Steve Swartz of KDOT, in-depth inspections, which were scheduled before the disaster in Minnesota, are a "hands on, up close examination that can also involve the use of special testing instruments, such as ultrasound," Swartz said.
The engineering firm, HNTB, has been contracted to conduct the inspection which is expected to take about six weeks.
Other inspections will begin later this summer and are expected to be completed by late September.
In Marion County, there aren't any massive steel bridges of this kind. However, bridge inspections are not taken lightly.
"County bridges are inspected every two years," Dennis Maggard said, with the last inspection in 2006.
Marion County has a lot of bridges to have inspected — 302 to be exact but Maggard said they have all been inspected.
Results of 2006 study
Approximately 80 percent of bridges on off-system roads were good to fair and about 15 percent were in poor condition. In that same study, four were considered to be serious and one was critical.
Recommendations for those in the critical, serious, and poor categories ranged from repair abutment, repair pier, to consider replacing.
Bridges on rural secondary roads are in a little better shape with 85 percent of the bridges in good shape and 15 percent in fair. There weren't any in substandard condition.
