City of Kent to rehabilitate bridge using funds from ODOT

The Sunrise Bridge in Kent which sits above Fish Creek and connects Sunrise Drive to Gale Drive has been approved for rehabilitation funding by the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT). 

As part of their Municipal Bridge Program, ODOT allows municipalities all throughout Ohio to request funding for bridges should the bridge be eligible for aid. The City of Kent’s application for funding totaled $612,000. 

For a bridge to be eligible for funding it must be owned by a city, village or RTA, it must be open to vehicular traffic and be structurally deficient among other criteria according to the program. The full list of requirements can be found here. 

The Sunrise Bridge is a 43-foot long single span steel beam bridge with a composite concrete deck. Built in 1968 and last modified in 1988, the bridge supports 18 residences on the other side which have no other way to access the city. Kent’s Superintendent of Engineering, James Bowling, said the bridge needs to be addressed.

“It’s the worst rated structure in the city. That’s why it was prioritized,” Bowling said. “It’s critical to us that we address the structural issues as cost effectively as possible.” 

ODOT ranks the conditions of bridges from zero to nine, with zero meaning the bridge is in a failed state and out of service while nine indicates the bridge is in excellent condition. Bowling said the Sunrise Bridge was given a 5 general appraisal rating by ODOT. 

“A five is a rating of a fair condition, basically that all the primary structural elements were sound,” Bowling said. “But there’s some minor, we call it section loss. So like steel beams, if it rusts, you know, the beam actually gets thinner because the steel’s rusting away.” 

In the project scope form, reviewed and approved by Bowling, it is stated 50% of the Sunrise Bridge’s concrete deck is unsound and the steel fascia beams are in poor condition with more than 50% section loss in the bottom flange. These components make up the superstructure of the bridge, not the substructure which was said to be in good condition within the report. 

A complete replacement of the bridge was considered but a rehabilitation of the existing structure was deemed as the best solution. Bowling said ODOT’s funding is strictly for the construction costs and in no way are municipalities required to pay back the funding unless they did something in violation of the federal regulations that comes with the funding. 

“I want to clarify one thing, they’ll pay up to what’s basically 95% of eligible construction costs,” Bowling said. “They don’t pay for the design, they don’t pay for the studies that are done ahead of time.” 

ODOT will provide 80% of eligible costs for construction only. Toll revenue credit is available to increase the Federal percentage to 95%. 

Toll revenue credit is revenue a state gets from its toll roads which is then reinvested in transportation projects that could have been federally eligible for aid. The Federal Highway Administration will then give a certain amount of credit according to Municipal Program Manager, Nichole Lawhorn. 

“It doesn’t increase the federal dollar amount in the project, but it does increase the federal percentage,” Lawhorn said.” In Kent’s example, that $612,000 is their cap whether they are funded at 80% or 95%. It just increases the federal percentage, which if you’re not going to hit that cap works out advantageously for the local.” 

Municipality representatives seeking funding will fill out an application online and applications are solicited annually by the Municipal Bridge Program from July 1st to Aug. 15. 

About 20 applications are received by the program per year. This year only about 10 were submitted which Lawhorn said might have been a result of the coronavirus pandemic. After applications are submitted, a multi-step evaluation occurs. 

“That application is then reviewed by a multidisciplinary committee, made up of staff from our office of local programs,” Lawhorn said. “We have staff from our Structural Engineering, who are our bridge experts to let us know, and then we’ve got staff from the Office of Environmental Services. In addition to that, we also have the district staff who will review their respective applications and weigh in on that because they know those locals best.” 

Lawhorn will create a schedule for representatives of the municipalities to present their request and the details of the request before the committee. This gives the committee an opportunity to clarify any questions they may have, especially if a municipality’s ability to carry out a project is still in question. 

“Sometimes the district will tell us they’re in a fiscal emergency, or they don’t think they can handle one more project due to other projects that may be ongoing,” Lawhorn said. “Our districts really have a great relationship with our local public agencies. And so they’re able to tell us that, but in the event that it’s not clear, we will also ask that.” 

Lawhorn said the presentation portion of the application review is a new element to the process, having been introduced just three years ago. Once funding has been distributed, Lawhorn said municipalities have the option of allowing ODOT to administer the project or they can administer the project themselves with ODOT monitoring progress. 

The ODOT Municipal Bridge Program has been around since 2004 and money for the program is allocated from the overall budget for ODOT. Currently, there is $11 million put aside for the program according to Lawhorn. 

The rehabilitation of Sunrise Bridge isn’t the first collaboration between the City of Kent and the program as the city has received aid in the past. 

“We received Municipal Bridge Program money to replace the Harvey Redmond Bridge over the Calgary River down by Fred Fuller Park. And that was done probably about five years ago,” Bowling said. “Prior to that, I believe we received money to replace Spalding Bridge about 12 years ago, Spalding Drive over Fish Creek.” 

The Municipal Bridge Program is one of several other collaborative efforts ODOT engages in while the County Engineers Association of Ohio has funding programs of its own. Bowling cited a couple other projects Kent has been currently working on with ODOT such as North Water Street in which the road is being resurfaced and curbs are being moved. 

The funds authorized for the Sunrise Bridge will be in ODOT’s 2024 fiscal year meaning the project will be awarded between July 1, 2023 and June 30, 2024 according to Lawhorn. Kent will still have to finalize design plans and conduct environmental studies.