Four New Bridges Are Included In Pike Budget

Pike County Commissioners are proud of the work that has been done to secure the construction of four new bridges out of the budget .
A clarification to the article last week, the money for the bridges comes from the road and bridge budget of under $3 million and not the general revenue funds from where the commissioners were able to provide raises to most county employees this year. The overall budget for the county is just under $7 million.
Western District Commissioner Bill Allen noted that bridges and infrastructure are expensive and often difficult to provide, but that the commission opted against some equipment purchases and worked with other counties in the state to make sure pressing road and bridge needs could be met.
The county will have two soft-match bridges. One is on Pike County Road 135 (Waddell Lane) and the other is at Pike County Road 48. Upon completion, the county gets an 80 percent match.
The county will also have two large bridges done by the BRO (bridge replacement off) system. Those bridges will be located at Pike County Road 323 (Touchette) and also at Pike County Road 135.
Eastern District Commissioner Justin Sheppard noted the county had been told they couldn’t do a BRO bridge for five years due to being in the hole. However, the county had built up the soft-match funds, so the commissioners went to work exchanging credits – dollar for dollar – to ensure badly-needed bridge work could be done.
Sheppard added that since he’s been on the commission the county has already done four bridge projects and that he’s pleased so much can be accomplished this year as well.
Presiding Commissioner Chris Gamm pointed out that a couple of areas were getting to the point that school busses and emergency vehicles could not get through so the projects were given a high priority with the commission.
Sheppard added the commission has been ambitious and has found ways to get projects accomplished while also identifying new revenue streams such as the new landfill fees the county will be getting this year that will result in over $80,000 being added to the general revenue budget.
Allen added he’s appreciative of the counties and entities that have been willing to trade bridge credits with Pike County which includes the City of St. Louis and St. Louis County.