Posted: 2:42 p.m. Wednesday, March 25, 2015

State offers bridge inspections in Middletown

By  http://www.journal-news.com/staff/ed-richter/" rel="nofollow - Staff Writer

MIDDLETOWN — 

    Middletown is considering an offer from the Ohio Department of Transportation to do bridge inspections at no cost to the city.

City Council is considering legislation on accepting the offer and will vote on it at its April 7 meeting. The proposed legislation was given a first reading at council’s meeting last week.

    ODOT has offered to do bridge inspections in cities statewide to help achieve full compliance with the Federal Highway Administration metrics. However, council will need to give its consent before the city can participate.

    The state’s bridge inspection services include bridge load calculations, scour assessments, bridge inspections and fracture critical plan development.

    If the city decides to pass on the offer, it will require the city to hire a private consulting firm to do the bridge inspection work.

    While the state will pay 100 percent of all bridge inspection program services requested by the city and agreed to by the state, the city also agrees to pay 100 percent of the costs that are outside of the agreement’s scope of services.