State’s Bridge Crisis Hits Home
Although Hwy. 32 is visible in the background, Rob and Jordan Jones now have a 2.7 mile detour after a bridge was closed west of Water Valley on County Road 104 last Friday. The couple’s driveway is located just past the bridge that spans the creek that intersects their property. Located in District Three, Supervisor Lee McMinn (right) shared the bad news that the bridge will be closed indefinitely because he doesn’t have funds in his budget for the replacement. Also pictured is Reagan Jones, the couple’s daughter.
District 3 Supervisor Lee McMinn learned the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has taken bids to install a new box culvert as part of a drainage project on County Road 118. The concrete box culvert will replace the metal round culvert (shown left). The estimated cost of the project is more than a million dollars, spending federal tax dollars on a project McMinn says does not address a pressing problem.
Rotten pilings were cited in the bridge inspection report as the reason for the closure.
By David Howell
Editor
WATER VALLEY – You can add one more closed bridge to the state’s bridge crisis after a closure was ordered on County Road 104 in Yalobusha County. The bridge was deemed unsafe following an inspection last Thursday by independent inspection consultants hired by the Mississippi Office of State Aid Road Construction. District 3 Supervisor Lee McMinn reported he received word from county engineer Karl Grubb Friday morning that an immediate closure was required.
While the closure marked the first in the county, the Mississippi Department of Transportation ordered over 100 local and county bridges to be closed back in April after they were judged deficient by the federal National Bridge Inspection Standards and the Mississippi Office of State Aid Road Construction. More closures could come as the bridge inspections continue in the county and across Mississippi as the state complies with a mandate from the Federal Highway Administration to inspect over 3,000 critical bridges, most of which are timber bridges maintained by counties and municipalities. Statewide there are almost 500 bridges closed.
The bridge on CR 104 is one of four wood piling bridges in District 3 according to McMinn, who added that he doesn’t have money in his budget for the estimated quarter-million dollar cost to replace the closed bridge.
Grubb told the Herald the county typically receives enough money from the state’s Local System Bridge Replacement and Rehabilitation Program (LSBP) to replace one bridge every four years. The LSBP program funds bridge work on locally owned bridges that aren’t on state aid or federal routes and is a key funding mechanism across the state to replace bridges similar to the one on CR 104. However, legislators did not fund the program last year.
Local Impact
The closed bridge is located just west of Water Valley and within a rock’s throw from Hwy. 32 and McMinn said residents on the road now have a two-plus mile detour to get to town. He also said his phone has been ringing, both from residents on the road and from multiple farmers who have crops across the bridge that will be harvested soon.
One of the first to reach out to McMinn was Rob Jones, who recently purchased property that straddles the creek where the bridge is closed. He moved to the property on June 21 with his wife, Jordan, and daughter, Reagan, after completing a five-year stint with the Marines. Their driveway is just across the bridge and 100 yards from Hwy. 32.
Now, not only will they be forced to make a lengthy detour, but Rob also explained plans to peddle produce they are growing on over two acres of their property including pumpkins and other winter produce is in jeopardy. They were planning to set up a produce stand on their property across the creek from their house along the highway, but now they can’t get their equipment across the creek unless they make the lengthy detour.
“It’s one thing to drive around, but driving a tractor all the way around, that is another thing,” Rob explained about the detour to access his property on the other side of the creek and adjacent to the highway.
He also talked to the independent inspectors at the site Thursday, explaining the interaction was less than courteous.
“They said ‘we are going to have to close it down. And if you have a problem with it, take it up with the state,’” Rob explained.
He also had simple advice to address the issue.
“We need funding from the state to get this thing back open,” Rob told the Herald.
McMinn also stressed the need for more funding to flow to the counties for bridges.
“What I would like to see is for some funds become available to address a long neglected issue. It has just been put off and put off to the point that it can’t be put off anymore,” McMinn said.
Big Money Flows For A Different Project
Ironically another bridge in District Three is slated for replacement by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as part of flood control for the Mississippi River and Tributaries, Yazoo River Basin. The problem, according to McMinn, is the replacement doesn’t address a pressing problem and comes with an exorbitant price tag.
The bridge is located on County Road 118 and spans a dry tributary that feeds Greasy Creek. McMinn said he has replaced the six-foot culvert in recent years and before that the previous culvert had been there for decades.
McMinn concedes that the current culvert’s 30-foot span could be longer, but he noted it has been sufficient for decades.
The project specifications are for a 66-foot pre-cast box culvert and according to the U.S. Corps of Engineer’s website, five bids were opened on the project on August 28 and ranged from $1.9 million from a Florida company to $942,996 from Trans4Fed, LLC in Purvis, Miss.
“I am all for fixing infrastructure, but for a million dollars I could fix four wood pile bridges in District 3. And they all cross creeks that drain into the lake,” McMinn said, a reference to the Corps’ flood control mission.
The Herald reached out to the U.S. Corps for more information about the project, but a call to Acting Public Affairs Chief Sara Robinson was not returned by presstime.
