BROOKINGS – The Brookings City Council heard a report Nov. 23 from Civil Design Inc. on the inspections of five bridges in the city over the summer.

“We perform those inspections every other year as part of your required bridge inspection program,” Chris Brozik, P.E. with Civil Design Inc., said.

“The South Dakota Department of Transportation manages the Bridge Inspection Program as part of the National Bridge Inspection Standards (NBIS) Program,” according to an attachment to the agenda available on the city’s website.

“All bridges and box culverts in the program are required to be inspected at intervals not to exceed two years, with the exception of reinforced concrete box culverts that meet specific criteria. The City of Brookings has three bridges and one box culvert in the program which were inspected in 2021,” according to the attachment.

“The city follows the NBIS standards so Federal Bridge Replacement Funds can be utilized to hire consultants for the inspections. The SDDOT has secured the federal approvals and will make the payments to Civil Design Inc. for the inspection services,” according to the attachment.

“The SDDOT also provides for 80% funding for the inspection and the city provides the 20% match, which will be paid out of the Drainage Fund. The average cost of the inspection is approximately $5,000, with the city match being approximately $1,000. As required by the program all findings are to be shared with the City Council,” according to the attachment.

“Civil Design Inc. inspected all the city-owned bridges this past summer and observed no major deficiencies. At several of the structures, they noted small items that will be addressed in the coming year. None of these issues will require major expenditures to address,” according to the attachment. 

Presentation

The City of Brookings owns and maintains four NBIS structures and maintains the Brookings Airport bridge, a privately-owned structure, Brozik said. 

“Of those five, four we contract with the DOT on, since they are within city limits,” Brozik said. For the airport bridge, Civil Design contracts directly with the city. Although it’s a private structure, “the city, (feels) it necessary to also do an inspection on that within the same cycle, just to maintain records.”

An NBIS structure is any bridge that’s over 20 feet in length, Brozik said, adding all four of these bridges are on a 24-month inspection cycle.

Civil Design looks at the overall condition of all the structures with hands-on inspections, notes, measurements and photographs. They do load rating analysis, documentation, and generate reports for their findings on the bridges. They provide an overall summary and met with the city engineering department Nov. 8 to go over all findings and repair recommendations they have.

“To be clear, these inspections are related only to the structural integrity and safety features of the structure and not directly related to any drainage analysis or anything of that fashion,” Brozik said.

Bridges

Two bridges are on Western Avenue. 

No. 06-160-152, a three-cell box culvert, was built in 1932 “and showing some age and some signs of deterioration, particularly at the end of the box, mainly due to de-icing salts (and wear and tear),” Brozik said. The structure under the roadway is in relatively good condition, and they have no concerns about its function, he added.

No. 06-160-158 is located just north of the bowling alley on Western Avenue and was built in 1988 and has “very minimal issues,” Brozik said.

Two are on Medary Avenue, north of the Highway 14 bypass. No. 06-170-147 was built in 1987, and No. 06-170-149 was built in 1968.

They are “continuous concrete slab structures, very stout structures overall, in very good condition for their age and their location,” Brozik said.

Inspection

Brozik gave the council an overview of what his company does in the field during an inspection. CDI examines the approaches leading to the bridge and signage, “make sure all those safety features are in place,” Brozik said.

“Then, from there, we actually get up onto the bridge, start looking at the overall bridge deck, the concrete deck and the barrier rails, make sure there’s no physical damage. And then from there, start our way under the structure looking at the underside, whether there’s beams or a concrete slab structure itself,” Brozik said.

“From there then, kind of rounding out the overall structure itself, looking at the substructure units that are supporting that superstructure towards the center of the bridge and then also at its ends,” Brozik said.

They monitor channel profiles and channel protection, looking at riprap and “doing what’s called a channel profile, where we take a survey of the channel across the bridge and monitor any deterioration of the channel itself or scour measures that may need to be taken, if there is scour from a recent flood event,” Brozik said.

Analysis, documentation and reports are provided to the engineering department. Photos can be used to track future deterioration, he added.

Civil Design also provides reports to the state Department of Transportation, and they get sent to the federal Highway Administration, which documents bridges across the nation, Brozik said.

After filing all the reports, Civil Design sits down with the engineering department and explains everything in detail, highlighting any red flags they’ve found, Brozik said.

Contact Jodelle Greiner at jgreiner@brookingsregister.com.