Supervisors allow consulting design work for two bridges

Supervisors approved a consulting engineering contract with Calhoun-Burns and Associates, Inc. for design work in the replacement of two bridges along Highways F24 and T38 in Jasper County.

Generally, the county completes its own designs in-house, but Jasper County Engineer Russ Stutt the bridges met the qualifications for a federal grant program that would supply more than half of the funds.

The Competitive Highway Bridge Program (CHBP) will provide for 55 percent of the project, so long as the county matches with 45 percent. Projects needed to be under contract by September 2021 in order to qualify for the grant.

Bridge work on F24 will take place northeast of Mingo over Clear Creek, which is positioned between West 116th Street North and West 108th Street North. The structure itself is in close proximity to another bridge primed for replacement over Indian Creek, just off Iowa Highway F117.

The T38 bridge, located north of the U.S. Highway 6 intersection in Oakland Acres, enables passage over Sugar Creek. The body of water nearly separates Jasper County from the neighboring Grinnell in Poweshiek County.

Both bridges will be designed as continuous concrete slab structures with open concrete rails, according to the consulting engineering contract. Included in the projects are road designs as necessary in order to properly connect the bridges to the highway systems.

Submittals will be sent to the Iowa Department of Transportation, Iowa Department of Natural Resources and the United States Army Corps of Engineers.

Stutt said these two bridges were not the worst conditioned structures in the county but they did meet the grant qualifications. The Jasper County Board of Supervisors voted 3-0 Tuesday morning to approve the consulting engineering contract.

Other engineering updates

During the Tuesday morning meeting, Jasper County Board of Supervisors Chairperson Brandon Talsma amended the agenda to include bids for replacing a 19-year-old tarp used by the engineer’s office to cover materials.

“We have two bids,” Stutt told supervisors. “One bid is from Span-Tech and it’s $10,840.56 plus an estimated $7,200 for installation. The other bid is from Fabra Dome and its total with installation is $12,406.50. I would ask that you guys approve the Fabra Dome with the installation.

Stutt said the stitching at the bottom attachment of the base bar dry rotted out and started to get loose. Wind eventually caught the tarp. The board of supervisors voted 3-0 to replace it.

At the Jan. 7 supervisors meeting, the board approved Stutt’s request to approve the fiscal year 2021 contract rock for road resurfacing. Prior to the meeting, the board and engineer spoke frequently about contract rock procedures and estimates.

The county acquired about $999,580 worth of contract rock, which equates to about 69,067.6 tons when valued at $14.43 per ton. Supervisors were impressed since Stutt initially planned for rock to cost much more at $16 per ton, which would have costed roughly $1.1 million.

Much of the contract rock that was purchased will be dispersed throughout the northern half of Jasper County. Roads originally planned for regrades will receive no contract rock, Newton Daily News previously reported.

Instead, about 600 tons of rock per mile will be hauled and placed by in-house engineer teams after cleaning ditches and reshaping those affected roads in need of repairs.

Contact Christopher Braunschweig at 641-792-3121 ext. 6560 or cbraunschweig@newtondailynews.com