WYDOT utilizing federal funding to replace county bridges

The Wyoming Department of Transportation (WYDOT) recently completed the installation of a new bridge over Arch Creek on County Road 179 in Crook County.

This structure, in addition to the Belle Fourche Bridge near Hulett, is being funded by the Federal Highway Administration’s BROS program.

BROS, the Bridge Replacement Off-System program, is a federally funded bridge replacement program intended to reduce the number of deficient off-system bridges within the state. This program applies to bridges under the jurisdiction of a public authority, located on a non-federal aid roadway and open to the public.

This includes city, town, and county-owned bridges meeting the qualifications.

The Arch Creek Bridge is located at mile marker 4.2 on Crook County Road 179, north of the town of Upton. This county road provides an alternate route connecting I-90 to WYO 116.

The original bridge was a simple span timber stringer bridge with a timber deck. The bridge was constructed in 1960.

In order for a bridge to qualify, it must demonstrate structural deficiencies, physical deterioration and/or functional obsolescence. This program applies to structures not on the federal-aid system.

The Arch Creek Bridge was found to be structurally deficient with the timber components showing signs of decay and the deck surface wearing with the tops of nails protruding through the decking in the wheel lines.

To be considered for replacement in the BROS program, the sponsoring jurisdiction – in this case, Crook County – must submit to WYDOT’s State Bridge Engineer a request identifying the structure.

The Crook County Commissioners submitted a request to WYDOT in 2012. WYDOT evaluated the bridge and in 2014 WYDOT Engineers submitted to Crook County recommendations for the bridges replacement.

WYDOT originally recommended replacing the bridge with multi barrel culverts but was rejected due to higher cost and potential for the culverts to be clogged with debris. To offer sustainability and functionality, the new bridge is made of pre-casted, pre-stressed concrete girders on cap type abutments on driven steel piles.

The new bridge is 65 feet long with a roadway width of 26 feet and has a load rating of approximately 36 tons.

The BROS program offers approximately a 90-10 match, meaning the project would be 90% federally funded and 10% locally funded. WYDOT is responsible for administration and management of all BROS projects.

This project went to bid in November of 2018 and was awarded to DRM, Inc., with a construction cost of $628,303.95 and a total cost including design, construction administration and indirect costs of $1,027,837.74. Crook County’s portion was estimated at $97,747.37.

Construction of the Bridge began in May of 2019 but due to weather and extreme wet conditions the bulk of the work did not start until after October of 2019. The bridge was completed in March of 2020.

In addition to the Arch Creek Bridge, Crook County and WYDOT are also replacing a bridge near the town of Hulett. This Bridge is known as the Belle Fourche Bridge and is located on County Road 51.

Originally built in 1980, this bridge was constructed using a rail, box car frame placed on steep columns. The new bridge will be constructed of the same material as the Arch Creek Bridge -pre-casted, pre-stressed concrete girders on cap type abutments on driven steel piles. 

This project was awarded to Reiman Corporation in November 2019 with the low bid of $1,660,227.90.  The total project cost is $2,447,845.26 with a County Match of $232,790.08.

Reiman Corp. began construction in December 2019 and is scheduled to be completed by October 2020.