County bridge inspections approved for October

Mike Mallow

Grant County Herald

All county bridges will be inspected this fall under a new federal policy. The request was brought to the Grant County Board of Commissioners at their regular monthly meeting on July 1.

County Engineer Matt Yavarow brought the bridge safety inspection agreement before the commissioners. The contract was with MSA Professional Services of Madison, WI.

Typically, the annual cost of bridge inspections is around $12,000. Yavarow noted this year’s amount is more than three times the usual cost, at $38,590.

“The reason for that is the Federal Highway Administration is changing the inspection requirements of all bridges,” Yavarow explained. “The process is going from what they call the ‘National Bridge Inspection Standards’ to ‘Specifications for National Bridge Inventory.’”

The new system would scale a bridge from 0 to 5, whereas the old system graded bridges on a 0 to 10 scale.

“It’s to simplify the process nationwide to make sure bridges are in good condition or not,” Yavarow said. “They don’t have to do in-depth inspections on every bridge in the county, but are going to have to get eyes on all of them in the county this time around, and then update our bridge inspection software.”

Normally, a quarter of the county’s bridges are inspected each year on a four-year rotation. The price increased this year because each bridge needs an inspection. Yavarow told the commissioners that this would be a one-time increase, and the price would return to normal for next year’s inspections.

Commissioner Troy Johnson asked if a quarter of the bridge would have to be inspected every year, or if all the bridge could wait until 2029 to be inspected again, since they would all be graded this year.

“The way they are spaced out or inspected is based on their inspection reports,” Yavarow answered. “A typical bridge will be inspected once every four years if it’s in good shape. If issues start arising in the bridge that they see, the inspection rate starts to increase to once every two years. If it gets really bad, then you have to inspect it every single year.”

Yavarow added that if all the inspections were held in 2029, the price would likely be closer to $50,000 because all the bridges would need a more in-depth examination then.

The bridge safety inspection agreement was unanimously approved.

Also approved was the contract for 2025 traffic markings with KAMCO, Inc. of Dassel.

“We awarded the bids for this contract (in April). Well, he lost the contracts,” Yavarow said. “We finally got them back now, so I’m bringing them to the board for approval.”

Suspicious Letter

An item was on the agenda to discuss a suspicious note taped to the basement door of the courthouse on Tuesday, June 24.

“I feel that we should have been informed that our names were on that note,” Board Chair Doyle Sperr said. He noted that he, Commissioner Ken Johnson and Commissioner Troy Johnson were also mentioned in the note.

Sperr said that an investigation has been done, and they know who left the note. The commissioners found out about the note through County Coordinator Tina Riley, who informed Troy Johnson.

“She let us know that day, but I don’t figure she should have been the one to let us know,” Sperr said.

“It’s been investigated?” Commissioner Bill LaValley asked. “That means it would be public? Is there any idea when the rest of us commissioners are going to get a chance to look at it?”

Sperr had the letter on his commission laptop and handed it to  LaValley.

Ken Johnson noted that the Sheriff’s Activity Report in the June 25 Herald mentioned a similar incident on June 16. “’A suspicious paper that had been taped on the door of a local business in the city of Elbow Lake,’” Ken Johnson read. “‘The deputy responded, entered the paper into evidence and informed the business there would be extra patrols in the area.’”

“A day later, this took place and there’s no note of it in the activity report,” Ken Johnson said. “There was no official communication, and I found out from our chair.” 

“It would have been nice to know something like that was up there,” Commissioner Dwight Walvatne said. “If there’s threats directed toward a person, you got to let them know so that they can keep an eye out and protect themselves.”