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

State offers bridge inspections in Middletown

By Ed Richter

Staff Writer

MIDDLETOWN — 

    Middletownis considering an offer from the Ohio Department of Transportation to do bridgeinspections at no cost to the city.

CityCouncil is considering legislation on accepting the offer and will vote on itat its April 7 meeting. The proposed legislation was given a first reading atcouncil’s meeting last week.

    ODOT has offered to do bridge inspectionsin cities statewide to help achieve full compliance with the Federal HighwayAdministration metrics. However, council will need to give its consent beforethe city can participate.

    The state’s bridge inspection servicesinclude bridge load calculations, scour assessments, bridge inspections andfracture 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 bridgeinspection work.

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