With the vast majority in need of some form of repair, LincolnCounty is facing a “serious situation” over its bridges, saidDistrict 3 Supervisor Nolan Earl Williamson.

The county has over 200 bridges, and only 25 have a rating ofsufficient. The rest are rated as closed, need criticalmaintenance, have deficient structural components or need minorrepairs or maintenance, according to the county’s 2002 bridgeinspection report.

“That’s not counting the ones under 20 feet,” Williamson said,adding that county officials handle inspection of thosebridges.

Four bridges, including ones on Springview Lane, Forest Road,Richardson Lane and Gene Trail, were closed and barricadedfollowing the report earlier this year. Williamson said the GeneTrail bridge remained closed, but the other three should bereopened shortly after county officials worked on replacingthem.

According to the report, 58 bridges need critical maintenance,46 have deficient structural components and 97 are in need of minorrepairs or maintenance. Of the bridges, 54 have posted weightlimits of less than 13,000 pounds and seven have 13,000 poundweight limits.

County Engineer Carl Ray Furr said county bridges are inspectedevery two years. Those include “on system” bridges on a state orfederal route and “off system” bridges such as those on countyroads.

“The worst bridges are always on the local side,” Furr said.

Bridges with sufficiency ratings of under 50 get yearlyattention.

“They get inspected every year,” said Furr, adding that thecounty’s critical maintenance bridges will be reviewed again inJanuary.

While some may disagree, Williamson rated bridge problems as themost important issue facing the county. The next most importantissue, he said, was additional industrial park land for futureeconomic development.

“In order to meet the needs of the growth of this county, thesebridges need to be seen to,” Williamson said.

The answer, Williamson said, is more money.

“We’re going to have to get some more money to get some bridgework done,” said Williamson, president of the board ofsupervisors.

He said the county will need more funds from the state, or localofficials will have to consider pursuing a county bond issue forbridge work within the next few years.

“Two to three million dollars won’t touch it,” Williamsonsaid.

Williamson estimated a minimum of $22,000-$23,000 would beneeded to replace one bridge. Now, after personnel and relatedexpenses, he said supervisors only have about $25,000 to $30,000per district for bridge work.

“At that rate, you can’t get but one bridge a year,” Williamsonsaid.

Williamson praised the Local System Bridge Program (LSBP)implemented several years ago by the state legislature. The programfunds replacement of counties most critical bridges.

“That’s one of the best programs to ever come down from thestate, but it’s just so slow,” Williamson said.

Williamson would like to see that program modified to betterallocate funds where needed. He said a law is needed to allowredistribution of LSBP funds from counties that don’t use theirallocation within a certain period to counties that do use theirsand need more.

A danger that concerns county officials is school buses crossinglow weight limit bridges. Furr and Williamson said the buses weighover 30,000 pounds unloaded.

Williamson indicated bridges’ short lengths allow buses to goover the low limit crossings.

“You never get the whole weight of the bus on the bridge at onetime,” Williamson said.

Another concern Williamson cited was concrete bridges built onwooden support pilings several years ago. In a number of cases, hesaid the pilings are now in bad shape and need replacing.

Those repairs, like other bridge work, will require money.Williamson said citizens can be taxed too much, but the county’sbridge problem is a serious one the needs to be addressed.

“You don’t want to scare anybody, but everybody needs to beaware of it,” Williamson said.