A 50-year-old bridge collapsed last week in Pittsburgh. Could that scenario play out in Wood County?

There are almost 100 bridges in poor or less-than-fair condition, said Wood County Engineer John Musteric.

The 2022 Wood County bridge construction budget is $1.6 million, to be spent on new construction for bridges. That includes $450,000 in grant funds.

Additional money will be spent on bridge maintenance to extend service life. The specific allocation has not yet been determined. The bridge appraisal had to be completed first.

All bridges are required to be inspected annually in Ohio.

A general appraisal breakdown of the bridges in Wood County was just completed last week. There is a 10-point scale, rating bridges from 0-9.

There are 52 bridges in Wood County that rate a 5-poor rating, and another 40 bridges that are in the 4-poor, or lower, categories. The county has a total of 439 bridges, of which 56 are currently load limited for Ohio legal loads and/or emergency vehicles.

The engineer’s office determines whether or not a load limit will be placed on a bridge, and how much that would be.

There are five bridges currently closed to traffic in Wood County, according to Joanie Cherry, bridge project manager with the Wood County Engineer’s office.

“The commissioners, the sheriff and John are working together for the overweight program, (they are) trying to protect our infrastructure. It’s not keeping vehicles from getting where they need to go, it’s us trying to find the best and safest way for them to get where they need to,” Cherry said.

There are 51 fracture critical bridges, some of which are now load limited and two of those are currently among those closed to traffic.

“Fracture critical is not necessarily a bad bridge. It just means that they are not load redundant,” Cherry said. “A brand new bridge can be fracture critical and be very safe and last a long time. It’s just a certain style of bridge.”

Musteric said that the fines for bridge-use violations need to be increased. He said that those fines have not been changed in Ohio since 1953.

Where a fine in Ohio might be 3 cents per pound, Musteric said that it would be 10 cents per pound for a similar bridge in other states.

“At $600 they roll the dice,” Musteric said. “Well, you raise that up to $6,000, you might think that more than twice about going across that bridge.”

Musteric said he’s talked with Wood County Sheriff Mark Wasylyshyn about the dangers of overweight limit violations.

“(We) would hate for a heavy truck to go over a bridge, and God forbid a school bus is the next vehicle over and crash and go through it,” Musteric said.

He said that they are not making enough money on the fines. The final figures are not in yet, but he doesn’t think the costs are still being covered by the fines.

“It’s not a money grab. All we are trying to do is protect our infrastructure,” Musteric said. “We pay for a sheriff’s deputy vehicle and his salary to run our oversize and weight program. One of the bridges is constantly is load limited. (The sheriff) is constantly ticketing someone down there.”

Musteric said the bridge’s limit is posted, but he hears excuses from drivers saying that they used the route because it was recommended by the driver’s GPS.

Musteric is concerned that the lack of funding is just going to get worse. There is currently legislation in the Ohio Senate that would negatively impact the county bridge construction and maintenance budget.

“(State Sen. Theresa Gavarone, R-Huron) wants to suspend Ohio’s gas tax. That’s what we use for our bridges and roads,” Musteric said. “I really wasn’t too happy about that. We get our money basically from the gas tax and license plate fees.”

Gavarone has co-sponsored Senate Bill 277, which includes a five year suspension of Ohio’s gas tax, the bill description states that it would temporarily suspend “collection of the additional motor vehicle registration taxes on electric and hybrid vehicles.” If passed, it would take effect on Oct. 1.

Musteric has yet to talk with Gavarone about the bill.