The Daily Standard
Story Archive
The Palmer Road bridge in Union Township, originally built in 1994, was rated in poor condition until Jutte Excavating Inc. finished a $1.8 million replacement that was unveiled late last year.
CELINA - Mercer County Engineer Jim Wiechart characterizes the overall state of the 379 bridges on township and county roads under his jurisdiction as generally good following the completion of a yearly inspection.
County assistant engineer Aaron Moeller finished the process before the end of 2024.
"The general takeaway is that this is a yearly responsibility we complete that sort of happens under the radar," Wiechart told The Daily Standard. "It is important that the public know it is completed properly by licensed folks that have the training in these areas."
Most importantly, though, bridges are inspected "to protect the public that uses them each day," Wiechart said.
Ohio Revised Code defines a bridge as "any structure of 10 feet or more clear span, or 10 feet or more in diameter, situated on, above, or below a highway," and requires all bridges to be inspected annually.
As needed, bridge maintenance and work orders are generated from the inspection.
"There were roughly 30-40 work orders created," Wiechart said. "They all related to minor maintenance items including such typical things as guardrail repair; crack seal/ dura-patching of pavements at bridge ends/ joints; tree, brush, vegetation removal; and erosion protection placement. Many have been completed and it is expected that nearly all will be addressed in the first quarter of this year."
Condition ratings determined by the annual inspection process also help inform decisions on future bridge replacements and rehabilitations. Bridges are graded on a scale of 0 to 9, with 9 being the best condition. Some general appraisals dropped as a result of this annual inspection, but not significantly, Wiechart said.
Wiechart, who has held office since 2002, said in his experience natural deterioration is the biggest long-term contributing factor in bridge condition ratings being lowered.
"Heavy traffic induced loading does take its toll as well, but overall natural deterioration over the long term is the biggest impact we see on our bridges," he pointed out.
Wiechart's office maintains a five-year bridge replacement/improvement plan. Since 1999, 221 bridges have been replaced and 49 bridges rehabilitated in the county.
This year, the office plans to replace four small bridges on Mercer-Darke County Line Road and Carthage Road, both in Granville Township, and Hone-Weir Road and Tama Road, both in Hopewell Township.
Late last year, Wiechart led a ceremony in Union Township celebrating the completion of the nearly $2 million Palmer Road bridge replacement project that began in 2023.
The old Palmer Road bridge in Union Township, originally built in 1994, before it was replaced last year.
Originally built in 1994, the bridge is located north of State Route 707 on Palmer Road over the St. Marys River. Its condition was rated poor during a previous general appraisal of bridges.
"The Palmer Road bridge is sort of the capstone to all that prior work and the last fracture critical truss to replace, and its uniqueness in that it is the longest of that particular precast, prestressed composite beam type in our state," Wiechart said.
Touching on other statistics, Wiechart said no bridges in the county are closed at this time and only five have reduced weight limits. Those are on Old Town Run Road in Dublin Township, Siegrist-Jutte Road in Washington Township, Gallman Road in Union Township, Burkettsville-St. Henry Road in Granville Township and Winkler Road in Black Creek Township.
All of those bridges except the one on Siegrist-Jutte Road are in very good condition, Wiechart said.
"As the state and the feds went to higher limits, those four had to be posted and are not planned for any replacement work in the foreseeable future," he explained.
The Siegrist-Jutte Road bridge, however, is deteriorating and tentatively slated to be replaced in 2026.
Due to the load limits, those five bridges are considered structurally deficient, meaning they need to be monitored. They are the only structurally deficient bridges in the county, Wiechart said.
Wiechart's office undertakes bridge maintenance, repair and reconstruction.
"We plan, engineer, design and in some cases fabricate the (materials) needed," he said.
Ohio maintains one of the most extensive and heavily travelled roadway systems in the nation, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers.
The state has more than 44,000 bridges and nearly 123,000 miles of roadway, according to the ASCE. Ohio has the second-highest number of bridges behind Texas in the U.S. and the fourth-highest volume of interstate miles. Ohio also has the fifth-highest traffic volume and the third-highest interstate truck traffic. Annually, $1.1 trillion in goods are shipped to and from sites in Ohio, primarily by truck, according to the ASCE.
