DEXTER -- State Rep. Tila Rowland-Hubrecht is more than familiar with the condition of bridges in Stoddard County. She was raised in a rural area within the Richland School District and travels the roads often. The need for bridge replacements and improvements was driven home, however, during a tour Friday morning with MoDOT Area Engineer David Wyman.
As the pair walked under the Drainage Ditch 2 bridge on Route Z east of Bernie, the state representative was presented with a seldom seen view of the severe deterioration of the bridge, which Wyman says is typical of all the area's older bridges.
"This bridge has a lot of truck traffic from the Martin Rice facility," Wyman explained. "It's the route used to deliver grain to the Pioneer plant in New Madrid, but it's not unlike a lot of other rural blacktop roads in southeast Missouri."
All of the bridges east of Hwy. 153 are similar in age and in deterioration level to the bridge we toured," Wyman noted.
An inspection of the bridge's underside revealed chunks of concrete that had fallen to the ground. With little pressure of the hand, more concrete easily dropped from the aging structure that sees heavy traffic daily in eastern Stoddard County.
Wyman said that when the bridges were built by the state in the 1930s and 40s, lightweight concrete was used to manufacture deck girders, which were put in place in sections to form the bridge.
"Many of our bridges also are built on timber pilings. Folks back then knew what they were doing, and the bridges have lasted a long time based on the materials they had available to them. But unfortunately, every component of these bridges is going bad at the same time. That's a problem."
"The construction was good in its day, but the girders are made of concrete and steel. When the wear and tear from the heavy traffic takes its toll, the bridges are left with cracks. Salt water, used during the icy and snowy winter months, runs down those cracks. The steel begins to rust and deteriorate, and the concrete breaks away."
"They've just outlived their days. North, South, East or West, they all are built the same way."
Wyman serves the MoDOT Southeast District which includes 25 counties in Southeast Missouri. Six bridges in the district are deemed as "Primary system" bridges. Seventy-five others are "Supplemental system" bridges, and all are considered "critical" by MoDOT.
MoDOT rates their bridges on a number system from one to nine, with nine being a brand new structure, and a number "1" as a completely failed structure. As the bridges age and deteriorate, the rating number decreases. The bridge on Route Z east of Bernie has currently been rated as a "4" on the rating scale.
"MoDOT is careful not to allow traffic on an unsafe bridge", Wyman stated.
A bridge in Campbell currently serves as an example of how severe the condition of some of the area's bridges have become. Its rating decreased from a "5" to a "2" in just two years.
"We really don't know why this bridge decreased so quickly," Wyman said. "I know that there have been a couple of small earthquakes in that area, and that may have contributed to the decline."
The State of Missouri built thousands of similar bridges in the period between 1930 to 1940, each one utilizing a similar construction process. Therefore, MoDOT is finding that their level of deterioration is very similar.
"All of the components of these bridges are going bad at the same time, and that's a problem. It takes a lot of money to replace the number of bridges that we're talking about. That is a big issue for Missourians.
Hope on the horizon?
Wyman said there is currently "no funding" to do anything with the failing bridges on the Supplementary system at this time.
"We'll be inspecting the bridges in the fall, and if the deterioration is bad enough to make them unsafe, we will have to close them."
With that shadow looming, Sen. Doug Libla (R-25) has introduced Senate Bill 540 to the Senate. The proposal calls for is a six cent per gallon tax increase on fuel. It would be phased in two-cent increments over a period of three years beginning in August 2015.
Hubrecht said MoDOT spending is often misunderstood by Missouri residents.
"Many people are against SB 540 because they see MoDOT building sidewalks and biking paths, but they don't understand how those funds are allocated and what is mandatory," explained Rowland-Hubrecht after a view of Drainage Ditch Number 2 bridge.
"The bill is currently in the Senate. If it is given Senate approval, it will come to the House, and will first go to the Transportation Committee and will then hopefully make it to the House floor."
Once approved by both the Senate and the House, the bill will go to the Governor's desk for his stamp of approval. It could feasibly be signed in August 2015 to go into effect for the next fiscal year."
Wyman explained that MoDOT is left with little other choice than the gas tax proposal.
"Right now, that's the only real option that's been introduced. From MoDOT's point of view, we'll take anything. One of the other big concerns we're looking at is that the federal government has money that they return back to the state's Transportation Department, if the Transportation Department has enough state dollars to use as match money. We are getting to the point that we won't have enough state funds to take full advantage of all the available federal funds. That's a 4:1 ratio, so we're not just losing one dollar -- we're losing five."
Rowland-Hubrecht agrees with MoDOT's area engineer. "Some people are against the bill because it would raise the gas tax, but I just don't know what other options we have."
The gas tax in Missouri is currently at 17 cents per gallon.
"When you figure inflation, that's not a lot," said Rowland-Hubrecht. "The last gas tax increase was enacted in 1992, and was also a six-cent tax that was phased in over four years."
"A problem in trying to get something like this passed," explained Wyman, "is that people see how much of the money is spent in municipalities on landscaping and sound barriers along the interstates, and they look at that as a waste of transportation dollars. In truth, most of those expenditures do not use MoDOT's money. Some of that money comes from municipalities they supply for beautification, and some of those projects -- like the sound barriers you see in the city -- are federally mandated.
"Much of the federal money received has strings attached to it," Wyman noted. "You have to play by their rules."
Rowland-Hubrecht is hopeful, she said, of Libla's proposed bill passing both the Senate and the House in the current session.