The Starkville Engineering Department is working to potentially replace three posted bridges in Starkville by applying to the Mississippi Department of Transportation Emergency Road and Repair Fund.
“Obviously we have a lot of infrastructure needs around the community, and we’re trying to stretch the dollars as far as we can to replace and upgrade that infrastructure,” City Engineer Edward Kemp said.
The Starkville Board of Aldermen approved the request of application for the three bridge projects Tuesday night, which aims to replace Starkville’s three posted bridges.
The engineering department is applying to replace:
• Bridge 73 located in the Pleasant Acres neighborhood on Barnett Drive
• Bridge 74 located on Starkville High School’s campus that crosses Hollis Creek
• Bridge 138 located on West Point Road, just south of Garrard Road
The MDOT Emergency Road and Repair Fund is special funding approved by the state legislature, dedicated to road and bridge projects.
“We thought that these would be good opportunities to apply for,” Kemp said. “We’re not sure if they’ll get approved or not, but at least apply for the funding to replace these bridges.”
Kemp said, if received, the funds from the grant would be crucial in replacing the three bridges.
“Bridge replacement is a pretty substantial cost in undertaking and is really beyond the scope of what our typical drainage capital improvement listing funds really would allow,” Kemp said.
“A bridge replacement would basically require a couple years worth of funding just to replace a single bridge,” Kemp added. “So the opportunity to apply for funds to do this work is really huge for our community with our capital improvement funding limitations.”
Oktibbeha County inspects all city and county bridges.
“There are a lot of different parameters that go into the inspection such as determining the load rating on a particular bridge,” Kemp said.
Bridges can be classified as good, posted or closed. When a bridge is in the posted classification, a limit is put on the weight that can go across the bridge.
“Which means they basically post a load limit that’s less than the typical amount,” Kemp said.
A bridge is classified as closed when no weight can go across it.
“Luckily the city doesn’t have any of that classification, but we do have three in the posted category and those are the three bridges that we are seeking to apply for to replace,” Kemp said.
As previously reported by the Starkville Daily News, Oktibbeha County currently has two closed bridges: one on Mt. Olive Road and one on Self Creek Road. The county intends to use county funds to replace its closed bridges, but will apply to the MDOT grant to replace 10 posted bridges within the county.
Kemp said the Starkville Engineering Department would begin the MDOT applications next week and he doesn’t have a cost estimate for the three projects yet.
“The three bridges that we have (to replace), they’re very different,” Kemp said. “It’s hard to put a single number on all three ... the costs would be very different.”
Kemp said MDOT would evaluate a number of items on the application.
“There’s a lot of information in the application that MDOT looks at, everything from economic impact to detour routes,” Kemp said. “They’re really doing a full analysis of every one of these projects.”
“If we’re lucky enough to be rewarded, we would move directly into full surveying and design and that’s typically a several-months process,” Kemp estimated. “Then go to the bidding and contract process.”
Kemp estimates the construction timeline for projects of this size would be around 60 to 70 days.
“I know one of the priorities of this project is to get to construction as soon as possible,” Kemp said. “That obviously would be our goal as well.”
“We are always looking for opportunities for other funding sources to improve our infrastructure,” Kemp concluded. “We’re very thankful for the opportunity to apply for these funds.”