Verona Township bridge being replaced
Work has started to replace a Faribault County bridge near Winnebago.
Demolition of what is known as the ‘Cartwright Bridge’ on 340th Avenue began on Monday.
The county has received state funding from the Department of Transportation to help pay for the project that is expected to cost $360,731. The county and Verona Township must chip in $18,000.
County assistant engineer Dave Hanson says time has taken its toll on the bridge that was erected in 1909.
He says county officials inspected the structure and it received a sufficiency rating of 18.1 percent.
“It has seen its day. To be qualified for funding it has to have a rating of 50 percent or less,” says Hanson.
The new bridge will be located 50 feet west of where the old one was.
Depending on weather conditions, construction is anticipated to take eight weeks.
County engineer John McDonald says replacement of the bridge has been in the works for five years and it is part of the county’s five-year bridge replacement plan.
McDonald says last year six culverts and one bridge were replaced, costing between $500,000 and $600,000.
“We have a number of bridges and culverts eligible for funding,” he says. “We’re whittling away at the deficient ones.”
In a quick count, McDonald came up with 18 bridges and culverts needing repairs.
Last month, the county was denied a request for federal stimulus funds to repair roads and bridges.
The projects — overlaying eight miles of County Road 2, repairing a bridge one mile west of Elmore and the Sahr bridge — are estimated to cost between $1.7 million and $2 million.