The Athens County Engineer is responsible for bridges on township roads of 10’ span or longer. This Troy Township bridge on Wildman Road was closed in 2017 after it was inspected. The bridge was not eligible for grant funding, located in a rural area with only one cabin before you hit the Washington County Line. We borrowed $ 500,000 to build 5 bridges in 2019, so it was imperative that we start early in the year. Athens County Crews started construction on February 4th. We removed the existing “superstructure”- steel beams and deck- and hammered out the top of one abutment and removed the top layer of cut sandstone on the other then formed and poured concrete caps. You can see the epoxy coated rebar (greenish) in the foreground on the abutment in the distance. John Brunton is the bridge superintendent in charge of building this bridge superstructure. We hired Ohio Concrete Sawing of Columbus to saw the concrete for $1400 and bought a prefabricated steel beam bridge from U.S. Bridge Company for $33,645. The new bridge has a 45 ton load rating and completely meets the need for this rural area with very little traffic, at a fraction of the cost of a completely new structure. Using our own crews and making good investments allows us to accomplish many projects with limited resources.
Featured Project
CR 28 and CR 32 Motor Paving
The Athens County Engineer’s Office applied for and received a $399,526 grant from the Ohio Public Works Commission (OPWC) in the fall of 2014. This project involved motor paving CR 28 McDougal Road from SR 550 to CR 93 in the Village of Millfield (4.8 miles), and CR 32 Congress Run Rd from SR 78 to the Village of Trimble near Loudermilk Rd (1.7 miles) for a total of 6.5 miles. The estimated cost for the paving is $539,900.
Motor paving is a cold mix asphalt process where #57 limestone is dumped into a paver, where it is mixed with emulsion, then applied to the road at a thickness of about 2.5 inches. The asphalt is then compacted with a roller. After sufficient curing time, the road is chip sealed with #8 limestone to seal the surface. There are several benefits to this process, including:
- Flexible paving system specifically designed for low volume roads
- Can be applied to roads which have a marginal base, due to the material’s flexibility
- More durable than conventional hot mix on low volume roads
- Can be open to traffic as soon as material is compacted
- Motor paving is approximately half the cost of conventional hot mix paving
In the spring of 2015, we will be applying for additional money from the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) through the Athens County TID. If we are successful on receiving additional grant funds, three small bridges with load limits will be replaced on CR 28, as well as the dilapidated culverts along both roads.