Oktibbeha County has closed two bridges — one on Moor High Road and the other on Sturgis-West Point Road — to traffic after a Federal Highway Administration inspection, done in conjunction with the Mississippi Department of Transportation and Office of State Aid Road Construction, was recently completed.
A letter to the county from the state aid office calls for the bridges’ immediate closure “due to conditions found” during a review of structures with a substructure rating of 3 throughout the state.
Work on the bridges should begin soon, County Administrator Emily Garrard said, but an exact start date was not clear Wednesday. The letter from the State Aid Office sets Aug. 27 as the deadline for repairs.
Negotiations on the Moor High Road bridge project are ongoing, but Garrard estimated its cost at about $121,000. The Sturgis-West Point Road bridge project, she said, should cost about $136,000.
Both expenses will come from the county’s bridge fund. Last year, supervisors approved a 1-mill increase for the bridge line item, which was expected to bring in an additional $341,000.
District 4 Supervisor Bricklee Miller said the closure to the Sturgis-West Point Road bridge, which is in her district, came about because the structure’s deficiency rating is below a 5-ton rating.
“We’re ready to move forward. We had a good bid for a new bridge. The old structure has been needing some attention for quite some time,” said District 5 Supervisor Joe Williams, who represents the area where the Moor High Road bridge is located.
Pritchard was not immediately available to discuss the bridges’ deficiencies.
Carl Smith covers Starkville and Oktibbeha County for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter @StarkDispatch
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