[9/26/03]Options ranging in price from $2.1 million to $140 million regarding the future of Warren County’s bridge over the Mississippi River were laid out for supervisors and bridge commissioners Thursday.

No action was taken on any of the proposals and none of them included reopening the roadway.

Max Reed, chairman of the board supervisors appoint to operate the bridge, and HNTB Architects, Engineers and Planners said the study was informational.

The bridge, opened in 1930 to carry both railroad and car and truck traffic, was privately built and later purchased by the county to be operated as a self-sustaining business.

It was closed to truck and car traffic due to deterioration of the concrete roadbed in 1998, and the public and supervisors themselves went on record in 1999 votes to reopen the roadbed. That has not happened, and problems with shifting piers on the Mississippi side have been noted.

Jack Shortess of HNTB said that at 73 years old, the bridge is quickly approaching its useful lifespan of 80 years.

Regarding movement in Piers 1 and 2, he said the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development has found similar movement on piers of the Interstate 20 Bridge. Louisiana operates the newer bridge and is studying the shift.

“They have agreed to share those results with us,” Shortess said.

Rudy McLellan, another HNTB engineer, then discussed problems with supports that hold up both the rail tracks and the highway parts of the bridge. He also provided the bridge commissioners and supervisors with some cost estimates for various repairs.

The costs of repairs of the pier and support problems were $11 million for what McLellan called long-term repairs that include strengthening Piers 1 and 2. He said it would cost $27 million to replace the entire east approach.

Estimates for short-term repairs to the bridge to maintain it for the next five years were $2.1 million and longer term repairs, $13 million.

Responding to a question from District 3 Supervisor Charles Selmon on why the bridge could not be reopened to traffic, Shortess said the main problems are that highway traffic lanes are only 9 feet wide and standards are for at least 10-foot lanes, preferably 12 feet. Also, the bridge does not have crash-tested barriers.

The most expensive option presented was replacing the bridge with a new, single track, railroad-only bridge. That cost was pegged at $120 million to $140 million over a five-year construction period.