By JONATHAN ZWEYGARDT
Hays Post
The Ellis County Commission will consider closing the 12th Street bridge one mile west of Hays due to its deterioration at its meeting Tuesday.
Ellis County Public Works Director Brendan Mackay said the closure will also allow the county to take advantage of a state program that pays to close bridges that are in poor condition.
Mackay said the 12th Street bridge needs a bridge deck replacement as well as the expansion joints and bearings.
He said the county has known since 2008 the bridge needs to be replaced.
They discovered when the county had to replace the bridge on Eighth Street in 2009. The engineers inspected both the Eighth and 12th Street bridges and determined the deck on the 12th Street bridge also needed to be replaced.
Mackay said an inspection in 2015 also determined the same thing.
“It came to the same conclusion that patching and overlaying was not going to be an economical choice,” Mackay said. “[Because of] the amount it would take to do that, the county would be better off putting a whole new deck on the structure.”
Mackay said the detour around the 12th Street bridge is just 0.3 miles while other detours are several miles. He added they have done several traffic studies and determined the best use of county funds would be to close the 12th Street bridge and potentially use the funds to replace the bridge on 125th Avenue 12.5 miles north of Ellis over the Saline River.
Through the Kansas Local Bridge Improvement Program, the county could receive $232,000 if selected by KDOT for replacement. Mackay estimated it could cost almost $1 million to replace the bridge.
Mackay said if they receive state funding to place the deck on the bridge on 125th Avenue and the additional funds from closing the 12th Street bridge would greatly reduce the county’s cost.
He said the options for the county commission will be to leave the bridge open and pay to replace the deck or close the bridge.
In other business, the commission will consider reimbursements for the Dec. 15 fire, discuss a land annexation for the city of Victoria and consider a food service contract for the jail.
The agenda is available HERE.