As bridge engineering costs escalate, commissioners want oversight
Barbara S. Miller/Observer-Reporter
What is known as the concrete Arch Bridge on West Wheeling Street, Washington, was built in 1919 to span Catfish Creek. It has a three-ton weight limit and, because of its poor condition, it is due to be replaced by Washington County, where officials expressed concern about high engineering costs.
The Washington County commissioners railed against the escalating cost of engineering firms' design of replacement bridges, including the one known as The Arch on West Wheeling Street near Jefferson Avenue, Washington.
Washington County will be replacing two bridges, but commissioners were shocked to learn Wednesday the cost of designing them is getting almost as expensive as labor and materials.
“It’s going to cost us $400,000 to design an $800,000 bridge?” asked Commissioner Harlan Shober. “I’m in the wrong business.”
“We’re trying to get the engineer to bring the grade of the road up a little because of flooding issues on West Wheeling Street,” said Lisa Cessna, executive director of Washington County Planning Commission.
She was speaking of the concrete arch bridge in Washington, which will observe its centennial next year before it’s ready for replacement in 2020 or 2021.
It’s likely to be replaced by an open structure that will let flood water pass.
When bridges are designed with state or federal tax dollars, the cost of engineering must be approved by the state Department of Transportation.
“They only look at hours,” Cessna said.
The bridge in question is Chartiers Creek No. 58, known as “The Arch” over Catfish Creek on West Wheeling Street in Washington. It now has a three-ton weight limit.
HRG of Cranberry Township has a $412,100 contract with the county for its design and related matters, Cessna said.
Commission Vice Chairman Diana Irey Vaughan, who was in charge of an agenda-setting meeting in the absence of commission Chairman Larry Maggi, asked Cessna to prepare information about total costs and engineering costs because she wanted “something we can address through CCAP.”
Irey Vaughan, Maggi and Shober are members of County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania, an organization of which Shober was president last year.
“All contracts are negotiated by PennDOT on our behalf,” Cessna explained after the agenda meeting. “We concur ultimately.”
The county advertises, selects an engineering firm and submits it to PennDOT, which negotiates how long it will take for each individual task, such as preliminary to final design, the seeking of permits and securing rights of way to produce the plans on which to seek bids for construction.
“This is an argument the county has been making for years and years and years with PennDOT,” Cessna said. “We’ve seen our costs for engineering go up and up and up and up.
“Construction costs are increasing, but that’s really based on materials.”
County tax dollars cover five percent of bridge replacement costs. PennDOT is paying 80 percent through federal funds and 15 percent through state funds
The firm GAI will also be paid $533,207 for the design of the steel girder Hough Bridge in Canton Township, part of the Chartiers Creek watershed, which is submerged when Henderson Avenue floods, so the road will need to be widened.
Replacement of the bridge will likely cost around $1 million.
The county planning department employs one bridge engineer, but Irey Vaughan said it would be impossible for the county, which is responsible for nearly 140 spans, to design bridges in-house.