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Bluebag Media
County bridge
burden great; resources insufficient
GREENVILLE – “I have always known our bridge burden is great, but I
didn’t know how great,” said Darke County Engineer Jim Surber. He is
referring to a recent report by the National Association of Counties in
which Darke County is noted as being 10th in the nation for the number
of county-owned bridges.
“The counties with more bridges than Darke include Harris (Houston,
TX), Sedgwick (Wichita, KS) and Lane (Eugene, OR)… Their populations
range from 351 thousand to over four million.” The number of bridges
for each county, respectively, is 752, 589 and 410. Darke County has
399. Surber also noted the federal bridge definition is over a 20-foot
span; Ohio’s definition is 10 feet. “That puts us at 531,” he said.
In a recent communication to State Representative Jim Buchy, Surber
noted Darke has more bridges than any other county in Ohio, adding the
nine counties nationwide with more bridges are all in western states
with much larger land areas.
Darke County has 521 miles of county roads, 541 miles of township roads
and 183 miles of city streets in addition to the bridges. According to
Surber static funding over the past eight years has impacted the
ability of agencies in the county to repair their roads and bridges.
For example, he said three years ago township trustees paved about 15
miles of roads a year; this year they’ll pave about five miles. Also,
in the past the county paved three times as many roads as it worked on
bridges; today it paves 12 times as much in roads as it works on
bridges...
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