Jasper County and Marion County to share costs of bridge replacement

Jasper County formed an agreement with Marion County for the replacement of a bridge along the County Line Road, or South 128th Avenue, over a branch of the South Skunk River. A memorandum of understanding was approved this past week by the supervisors, which splits the costs of the bridge 50-50.

County Engineer Michael Frietsch said the bridge — classified as Bridge S33 — is located south of Galesburg and east of East 84th Street South. The single-span steel beam bridge will span 50 feet and 24.5 feet wide. The bridge will also have a reinforced poured concrete deck set over steel backwall abutments.

“A 50-footer should be adequate for that particular location,” Frietsch said. “So we’re looking at about $100,000 our share and Marion County $100,000 their share. So it’s going to be about a $200,000 total project. We have that currently scheduled to try to get up this fall. I’ll probably put out the steel package in July.”

Marion County already paid for and authorized the geotechnical investigations and soil samplings for the bridge, which is a practice nearly every bridge project has needed before a contract is even awarded or put out for bid. The board of supervisors voted 3-0 to pass the memorandum of understanding with Marion.

Collaborating with other counties for nearby projects is nothing new for Jasper County. Earlier this year, Jasper County had acquired materials for the bridge — known as Bridge C05 — that crosses Snipe Creek on North 115th Avenue West about 1.1 miles west of East 12th Street North.

Bridge C05 was constructed in 1921 and is currently a riveted pony truss style bridge. It is estimated to have less than six years of life left. It will be replaced with an 80-foot, single-span steel beam bridge with a reinforced poured concrete deck set over steel backwall abutments.

Marshall County will assume half of the costs for the Bridge C05 project.