Two rural bridge repairs approved

Secondary roads in Union County will continue their work repairing rural bridges.

Two repairs to Union County bridges were scheduled during Wednesday’s board of supervisors meeting. Both bids came in under the estimate, and the repairs will revitalize deteriorating bridges.

Union County Engineer Christian Boehmer said the goal for secondary roads was to repair between six to eight bridges per year.

The first of the repair projects, located east of Kent on 240th Street, was approved with the winning bid from Dixon Construction of Correctionville for $900,801.25. The concrete slab bridge, named Hesler Bridge, crosses over the Middle Platte River.

Boehmer described the old bridge as a truss bridge, with those trusses removed and replaced with a concrete slab twice as wide after repairs. The winning bid was almost 75% of the estimated price of $1.2 million.

The other, located east of Arispe on 265th Street, was approved with the winning bid also from Dixon for $768,171.60. This bridge, to be called Cedar Grove Bridge, and the pretensioned prestressed concrete beam bridge will cross over Sand Creek. The winning bid was lower than the $900,000 estimation for the project.

Construction for both of these projects could start during this year, but will most likely be pushed to as far as April of next year, according to Boehmer. This is because, in exchange for the lower costs for the projects, Union County incentivized a later start to the construction.

“If the winter is mild, it might start then,” Boehmer said. “It depends on the contractor and their pace. We got a good dollar value off of both these bridges.”

In other Union County news...

The board of supervisors held a public hearing for a budget amendment to the fiscal year 2025 appropriations, adding in areas for conservation, sanitarian, human services and general services for higher than forecasted expenses. These additional expenses went toward funeral services, tornado damage repair and repairs to an elevator in the county courthouse.

A fireworks show in Afton was approved for the Afton Weekend Celebration. The show will take place on Friday, June 27 over the Union County Fairgrounds. Top Notch Fireworks, who also produce several other shows around Union County including during the Fourth of July in McKinley Park and during the Union County Fair.

A lengthy discussion over the county’s de-commissioning plan for wind turbines led to a tabled approval, with plans for another discussion during the next board of supervisors meeting on June 4 after further review of the plan.