MANSFIELD — A $2 million bridge replacement on Crider Road over the Black Fork will be delayed after the lone bid for the work came in too high to be accepted.
Richland County commissioners on Tuesday approved a request from county Engineer Adam Gove to rebid the project on a section of the road off Ohio 603 in Mifflin Township.
The bridge connects Richland County with Ashland County and is a shared county project, according to Gove, who said the project is 100 percent grant funded through the County Engineers Association of Ohio Local Bridge Program.
He said the county line is basically found in the center of the stream.
Gove’s original estimate for the work was $1,988,675.50. The lone bid submitted, which came from Mosser Construction in Fremont, was for $2,472,284.44.
That bid was more than 10 percent higher than the estimate and had to be rejected under state law.
The engineer received approval to seek new bids with a higher estimate of $2,301,948.
Gove said rising inflation has made estimating the cost of projects more difficult in the last two years.
“But I think now we’ve seen those numbers kind of level out,” Gove said. “In this particular case, we’ve reduced the amount of footprint that the contractor can work in because of the amount of wetlands that are in that area for that bridge replacement.
“So we’re kind of limited on what they can do, how they can do it. We were low (in the initial estimate) on some of those items that would allow them to get in and do that work as far as like their mobilization and, and the ability to just be on the site to work in that area.”
Gove said the six-span, steel-beam bridge was built in the late 1950s or early 1960s. He said the plan is to replace it with a three-span, concrete, I-beam bridge.
“This section of road was relocated as part of the Interstate 71 installation and the bridge was built at that time. I think the total span is right around 300 feet long,” Gove said.
The new bridge will be 28-feet wide, a few feet wider than the current bridge.
Gove said he hopes a contractor can start prep work this fall and return in the spring with the goal of finishing the work by summer of 2024.
“It will be closed for quite some time once they do start (actual) construction,” he said.
Also on Tuesday, commissioners approved Gove’s request to reduce the load limit on the Tucker Road bridge in Monroe Township to five tons, down from the current 30 tons.
Gove said his staff inspected the bridge after a resident called with concerns and found a steel beam had likely been damaged by a large vehicle passing over it.
“We closed the bridge and made some very temporary repairs,” Gove said, adding the bridge is scheduled to be replaced.
“We don’t want any heavy trucks going across this bridge,” he said. “This is basically just getting it back open for people who live on that road.”
