Lauderdale County supervisors on Thursday learned about an emergency bridge repair and needed maintenance to keep the county paving equipment operational.
Road Manager Rush Mayatt said damage was found to a bridge crossing Gin Creek on Center Hill Martin Road during an annual inspection. Two pilings were about 85% eroded, he said.
“This is one of the bridges that get people across Okatibbee Lake,” he said.
Under normal circumstances, a bridge would be weight limited or closed while the county designs a project to repair or replace the damaged pilings. Due to the importance of the bridge and the need to address the damage quickly, however, Mayatt said he, along with Board of Supervisors President Jonathan Wells and County Administrator Chris Lafferty, determined an emergency repair is the best course of action.
Mayatt said the emergency repair involves splicing the piles and pouring concrete encasements around them to add strength and stability. As of Thursday, he said a contractor was already on site and beginning the work.
Although not an emergency, another needed repair is to the county’s asphalt spreader, a crucial piece of equipment for paving. Mayatt said the machine has about 5,000 hours on it, and some of the parts that are designed to wear need to be replaced.
Unfortunately, he said, those repairs are expensive. The cost is estimated at more than $74,000. Of that, $42,000 is in parts, and the remainder is labor, which is quoted at 180 hours.
With the high cost, Mayatt said he did explore some alternatives. Selling the machine as is would net the county about $50,000, he said, where as selling it after the repairs would fetch about $140,000.
The repairs are expected to take about a month, in large part due to the high number of labor hours needed to fix the machine, Mayatt said. Should the county chose to buy a new machine, it likely wouldn’t arrive until late spring or summer of next year, he said.
Mayatt said he also explored the possibility of doing some or all of the work in house, but quickly determined that’s not a project the county wants to tackle if it can avoid doing so.
Supervisors are expected to vote whether or not to approve the asphalt spreader repairs in their meeting at 9 a.m. Monday at the Lauderdale County Government Center. Should the repairs be approved, Mayatt said he will likely need to move money around in his budget to make the numbers work.