County working to repair old bridges

County working to repair old bridges

Buck Lake, Old River spans get much needed rehab

news@theeveningtimes.com

Crittenden County is continuing to replace its old, inadequate bridges on low volume roads, but in a more economical manner — using railroad flat cars.

County Judge Woody Wheeless said the county replaced the bridge on Old River Road and just completed one on Buck Lake Road.

“We’re doing a lot of rehab on our bridges,” Wheeless said. “The State of Arkansas inspects all the bridges and when they find deficiencies they tell us what the issue is. They will send out a letter saying you need to correct this and then we have to send them documentation when we do.”

The county has about 40 bridges they are responsible for maintaining, several of which received ‘F’ ratings from the state.

In the past, depending on how bad the bridge is, the county has replaced them with two, six foot diameter, 40 feet long culverts.

“We can do that for $15,000,” Wheeless said. “

You build your base and you gravel over the top of it, or, depending on where it is, you may put asphalt over the top. And where we are putting culverts, we are actually buying a little more expensive culvert — a coated culvert that will last 25 or 30 years.”

The two most recent replacements were too deep and the span too long to replace with culverts.

Instead, the county replaced those with railroad flatcars.

These types of bridges are widely being used in states with rural populations and are viable alternatives than a conventional bridge for low volume roads due to their low cost, quick and easy installation, and low maintenance.

Wheeless said a concrete bridge would cost between $500,000 and $750,000.

It costs about $18,000 apiece to replace those bridges with steel flatcars.

“They are actually real railroad cars,” Wheeless said. “It’s a lot cheaper than going back and trying to build a concrete bridge. We actually already have several in the county.”

Wheeless said the spans on Buck Lake Road and Old River Road were to long and too deep to replace with culverts.

“Both of those were concrete bridges,” Wheeless said. “The problem was that both of them had wooden pilings holding them up. The pilings had rotted. You can’t go under a concrete bridge and re-do the pilings. You have to take the bridge completely out.”

Wheeless said the county is trying to be proactive in replacing its worn out bridges.

“We have quite a few deficiencies across the county that we are addressing right now,” Wheeless said. “We are addressing them when

we see them.”

By Mark Randall