New Bern’s busiest bridges need ‘corrective action’ and millions to fix – New Bern Sun Journal

Craven County residents rely on the areas 145 bridges every day, yet 25 of them need corrective action.

Car and truck traffic is expected to double on New Berns bridges in the next 20 years. Corrective repairs to the two largest and most traveled bridges-- the Neuse and Trent River bridges -- will be imperative.

Throughout this article, we take a deeper dive into our bridge inspection database found here:Craven County, North Carolina Bridge Inspections | newbernsj.com

Repairs are rated two ways… critical finds and priority maintenance, said Rhett Gerrald, bridge maintenance engineer for the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT). Critical finds are urgent time-sensitive repairs needed, and priority maintenance is suggested to extend the lifespan of the structure.

There are 25 bridges that require priority maintenance, but noneare critical -- yet.

While inspection terms like need corrective action and structurally deficient" are alarming, they are not as concerningas residentsmight think, according to the NCDOT.

A bridge can live in the structurally deficient phase for a long time before its actually unsafe, said David Snoke, a project engineer in the NCDOT's structures management unit.

When a critical find is made, the NCDOT aims to have a plan in place within 10 days and make the repairs within 45 days, Snoke said.

For priority maintenance items, the goal is to have the repairs made before the next inspection cycle.

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It is sometimes dependent on access to the bridge and material or labor being available, Snoke said. With priority maintenance repairs, that is also very dependent on priorities within the division.

On July 1, the NCDOT entered into its 2022 fiscal year and has a bridge preservation budget of just over $1.2 million. This number does not include preservation work that is contracted out.

Craven Countys Maple Cypress Bridge is one of the bridges that was deemed structurally deficient and has already begun to be replaced under budget savings, according to Gerrald. Construction got underway in early June and will not be completed for a couple of years.

Repairs to the existing structure will keep the maximum weight limits from dropping, he said.

Four of Craven Countys most traveled bridges were deemed structurally unfit. Though the bridges listed were not claimed to be critical finds requiring immediate repair.

"A bridge can live in the structurally deficient state for a long time before it is actually unsafe," Snoke said. "There is several tiers within the category structurally deficient."

The repairs needed were/are of priority maintenance.Priority maintenance is any repaire that requires more attention than just routine maintenance. It often occurs when structures are starting to decay, loosen or crack.

The repairs on Neuse River Bridge, constructed in1999, were inspected in September 2019. Inspections are done every two years.

By 2040, experts predicttraffic to double at 18,000 travelers across the bridge, compared to the current9,000 travelers that cross Neuse Riverdaily.

With traffic projected to increase, repairs such as deck geometry were stated "intolerable requiring high priority of replacement," according to the NCDOT data.

What is deck geometry?

"When a bridge is functionally obsolete, that means the design of the bridge does not meet current standards or does not meet the current traffic demand, Gerrald said.

For instance, he said if there is heavy traffic across a bridge, additional lanes may be a necessityfor travelers convenience.

Other minor repairs included bank protection, which claimed to have minor amounts of drift and a slight chance of flooding.

All the needed repairs over New Berns Neuse River Bridge have been fixed, according to Gerrald.

In December 2020, repairs were made to the Freedom Memorial Bridge, originally built in 1976 and reconstructed in 1998. The repair team mended a few of the bridge's joints and further repairs are scheduled for the end of this summer.

The cost to repair just the joints is around $30,000.

By 2040, the bridge is expected to have average daily traffic of 53,000, a considerable jump from its current 26,500.

When the Freedom Memorial Bridge was last inspected in September 2019, the bank protection needed minor repairs and the channel was susceptible to minor amounts of drift.

Then, work was proposed due to general structure deterioration. The maintenance responsibility for the bridge falls on the State Highway Agency.

Wilson Creek bridge in Trent Woods

Wilson Creek bridge was originally built in 1984 and was never reconstructed.

The repairs were similar to the other four focused bridges, but the condition is fair.Fair condition could mean minor section loss, cracking of the concrete surfaceor a hard cleaning to brighten the appearance of the bridge.

Other repairs on the bridge included deck geometry, bank protection to prevent erosionand the prevention ofany chances of flooding.

Traffic is lower but the bridge is important for Trent Woods residents. The Wilson Creek bridgeis still projected to double from 2,600 reported in 2017to 5,200 by 2040.

Gerrald said all repairs that were deemed needing repairs for Wilson Creek have been completed.

The Slocum Road bridge in Havelock was built in 1984 and its maintenance responsibility falls on the Navy/Marines.

After its last inspection in October 2018, the total cost of repairs needed is $75,000. Fixing the asphalt alone is a $40,000 job.

The deck geometry was considered intolerable and corrective action was marked high priority. The overall condition of the bridge was considered fair, with minor section loss and cracking.

The bridge's average daily traffic is 2,500 and is expected to be 3,000 by 2032.

How do experts inspect bridges and what do they do to fix them?

As of March 2021, 8.2%of bridges in North Carolina were considered in poor condition, meaning they are safe, but have deteriorating components. The cost to repair all of them is over $3.8 billion.

The Federal Highway Administrations bridge inspection process and standards are a result of the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1968.

The NCDOT inspects bridges every 2 years, or more if a certain bridge poses a potential threat. Underwater inspections occur every5 years.

A bridge gets a sufficiency rating, which is calculated from data by the National Bridge Inspection program, on structural condition, functional obsolescence, and how essential it is to public use

"So, if that sufficiency rating meets a certain score or drops down to a certain score, it gets labeled as structurally deficient," according to Gerrald.

We typically look at every part of the bridge when we do an inspection. That typically means putting our hands on the bridge, though that is not 100 percent of the time, Snoke said.

If a hands-off inspection is done and something is noticed, the team gets special access to do a hands-on inspection for that portion of the bridge with the issue.

A bridge is scored on the condition of three things: its deck, superstructure, and substructure.

The most common types of issues on the deck are potholes and joint damage. For superstructures, damage usually occurs where the steel or concrete touches water. The ends of steel stands will sometimes corrode or concrete ones will have some chunks fall off due to passing debris, Snoke said.

When we do our bridge inspections, maintenance items are flagged by a bridge inspector and an engineer will categorize those maintenance items into three categories: routine, priority and critical, Snoke said. Those are the indicators for how quickly those items get done.

The information then goes to the local bridge maintenance engineer who prioritizes the work.

Creeks, rivers, and inlets snake through much of eastern North Carolina, making bridges a necessity in the region. Carteret and New Hanover County both had a slightly higher percentage of bridges that need to be repaired, 21.82 and 20.18 percentrespectively. Onslow and Pitt had roughly 7 percent fewer bridges that need repairs, at 10.98 percent and 10.71 percent.

In NCDOT's division 2, which Craven falls under, three bridges are closed for repairs. Two are in Pitt County and one is in Beaufort.

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New Bern's busiest bridges need 'corrective action' and millions to fix - New Bern Sun Journal