Jones County sees decrease in SD bridges

     Earlier this year, the Iowa DOT released its annual report of structurally deficient (SD) bridges across the state in each county. When the report came out in February, it noted that Jones County had 13 SD bridges.

     A few weeks ago, Jones County Engineer Derek Snead was happy to report that several bridges on that have been repaired or replaced, leaving the number of SD bridges to just seven. Those seven structures are either posted for a weight limit or closed:

     • Buffalo Road

     • Landis Road

     • 200^th Avenue

     • Fremont Road

     • Stone Bridge Road

     • Eby’s Mill Road

     • Stone City Road

     Three of these structures are currently proposed on the Secondary Roads five-year program.

     While statewide news stations reported that the State of Iowa was leading the nation in the most SD bridges, Jones County has not fallen victim. Counties such as Jasper and Marshall lead the state with 117 SD bridges each.

     The county has three main funding sources for its bridges:

     • LOT (local option tax)

     • State bridge funds

     • Farm-to-market (FM)

     “State funds have decreased,” reported Snead. “We haven’t had a huge bump in federal revenue; it hasn’t greatly increased. So we’re stretching our money farther for the funding we get.”

     Snead explained that because Iowa is so ag-driven, we see a lot of big, heavy pieces of equipment traveling our roadways and using our bridges and structures. Some states don’t have constant agricultural traffic like Iowa.

     “We need to get our crops out of the fields and to market,” he said. “Other states have road systems that are just people-to-people.”

     Snead said heavy equipment does take a toll on roads and bridges, which is why Secondary Roads makes it a priority to maintain, repair, and replace its structures, when the time and money are available to do so.

     In 2015, the Iowa Legislature approved an increase in fuel tax, with that funding going toward infrastructure. Snead said that funding cycle is hard to measure.

     “We did get an increase when the fuel tax went up,” he shared. “But we use that money for everything from rock to the road system. Our road system is in worse shape than our structures.”

     Secondary Roads used to allocate LOT money toward contract rock, but felt that money needed to be reserved for other local projects, such as maintenance projects.

     “Fuel use changes all the time,” added Snead, “and it doesn’t correlate to the price of fuel. The money doesn’t fluctuate based on usage.”

     Snead said with more and more fuel-efficient vehicles on the roads, there are less people spending money on fuel.

     The goal behind getting SD bridges removed off the list is to “enhance safety and make them more usable,” said Snead. “We promote connectivity.

     “With the number of structures out there, we can’t replace them as often as they’re needed,” continued Snead.

     While many of the county’s bridges require contract work to perform the repairs and replacements, some can be “fixed” by utilizing Secondary Roads’ own bridge crew.

     “We can do it at a fairly low cost,” Snead said.

     As the county sees more and more structures removed from the list, unfortunately that means less funding coming in.

     “With improving our system, our bridges are in better shape and less money comes our way, which is understandable,” said Snead.

     With the federal government passing the infrastructure bill, Snead doesn’t anticipate seeing a huge bump in federal funding coming into Jones County.

     “We won’t get an extra $1 million,” he said. “Maybe $100,000.”

     If you consider the county’s main paved system, it costs about half a million dollars to pave one mile. You do the math…

     “A lot of our structures were built 50 to 70 years ago,” reported Snead. “But then we never dreamed we’d see the amount of crops and heavy equipment on our roads and bridges today.”