By JARED ORZOLEK

orzolek@crescent-news.com

When a support beam in a bridge on Oakwood Avenue in Napoleon failed recently, area officials quickly moved to reduce the load limit on the crossing to ensure the safety of traffic.

The posting of load limits, along with annual bridge inspections and the replacement of outdated structures, are all steps local communities and counties take to maintain the hundreds of bridges in northwest Ohio.

The Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) has sent a memo to county officials which indicts counties risk losing their share of annual bridge funding if structures are not inspected.

However, area county engineers say local crossings are being inspected on a regular basis.

"Every year, we inspect all of our bridges," said Tim Schumm, an engineer with the Henry County engineer's office. Each bridge is checked by a trained inspector, who gives the crossing a grade based on its condition.

"We try to replace three to four structures a year," Schumm said.

The bridge in Napoleon with the recently modified load limit is maintained by Henry County and carries traffic over Hyning Creek on Oakwood Avenue.

Napoleon City Council recently accepted the recommendation of the engineer by reducing the load limit on the bridge from 40 tons to 30. The county is currently working with a consultant to develop a solution to fix the crossing and to search for a funding source to pay for repairs.

Schumm said the concrete beam under the crossing that failed was constructed in 1959. He said water and salt have taken a toll on the concrete over the decades.

"The straw that broke the camel's back was probably a heavy load," Schumm said.

A concrete barrier now shifts traffic away from the damaged beam and onto the other supports of the structure, which are sound.

Other counties also work to maintain the safety of bridges.

"We do inspections on a yearly basis. It's a requirement," said Travis McGarvey, Paulding County engineer. "You are looking at the abutments and the superstructure. On different types of bridges you look at different things."

Paulding County has nearly 200 crossings which require annual inspections. McGarvey said Chad Moore, an employee of the engineer's office who is trained in bridge inspection, checks the crossings.

Each bridge is rated on a 100-point scale during its inspection, according to McGarvey.

The engineer said his office will ask county commissioners to place a load limit on a bridge if warranted by the inspection.

He also said a bridge will be placed on a list for repair or replacement based on its condition and the amount of traffic it carries.

This year, seven bridges will be updated in Paulding County.

Bridge inspection and maintenance is also an ongoing effort in Defiance County, says county Engineer Warren Schlatter.

There are currently 232 bridges in Defiance County and each is inspected annually, typically in November and December.

"We like that time of the year because the vegetation has lost its leaves by that time," Schlatter.

The number of bridges in Defiance County changes from year to year as bridges are replaced with culverts or vice versa, according to Schlatter.

"You can have bridges that look like culverts and there are culverts that are really bridges," he said, explaining that crossings which are longer than 10 feet are defined as bridges.

Inspectors check the foundation, abutments and other aspects of each bridge, and any irregularities are measured so potential shifts in the structure can be monitored.

"We don't like things moving when it comes to the support of the bridge," Schlatter noted.

Local, state and federal funds are available to pay for the replacement of outdated structures, according to Schlatter, and two crossings have already been improved this year.

Federal funding helps pay for the replacement of bridges more than 20 feet long, but the waiting period for these grants is currently eight years, the engineer said.

Cities are also responsible for the maintenance of some bridges.

In Napoleon, the city hires a consultant to inspect the four bridges it maintains.

"We have one bridge (on Stevenson Street) which we monitor regularly," said city engineer Chad Lulfs.

According to ODOT, federal law requires all bridges be inspected once every two years, but Ohio law requires each the inspection of each crossing on an annual basis.

More than 42,000 bridges carry traffic in Ohio, the second largest number of bridges in a state nationwide.

ODOT is responsible for 14,891 bridges on the state highway system and other bridges are maintained by the state's counties and municipalities.

ODOT has $239 million budgeted in 2008 for the repair, replacement, and maintenance of Ohio bridges under ODOT's authority. ODOT also has allocated $91 million to assist counties and cities with their bridge projects.