[11/18/03]An error by federal highway staffers will delay a Warren County project to replace a bridge on Freetown Road, supervisors were told Monday.

Separately, city engineers were told that a bridge on Belva Road will have to be closed for safety reasons. Both bridges will have to be replaced using Mississippi Department of Transportation State Aid funding.

The bridge off U.S. 61 South on Belva will be closed today after a state inspection revealed extensive damage to the supports. City Engineer James “Bubba” Rainer said the wooden pilings that support the roadway are beyond repair and that the entire bridge will have to be replaced.

He said it was scheduled to be replaced next year, but the work may have to be moved up.

“This one is so severely deteriorated that it’s enough of a concern that it has been recommended to be closed,” Rainer said.

The bridge was built in 1976 and has an average daily traffic count of 715 vehicles, according to the Mississippi Department of Transportation. An inspection in January found most of the structure was in good or satisfactory condition except for the piers.

At that time, it was listed in critical need of replacement, but was allowed to remain open. The bridge provides access to homes in the Warrenton Heights area and residents will have a 3-mile detour to Redbone Road.

“It’s a critical road,” Rainer said.

The bridge is inside the city limits of Vicksburg, but is eligible for state-aid funding through Warren County. Rainer said he plans to seek emergency status for the bridge to get it replaced sooner.

On the Freetown Road bridge over Clear Creek, supervisors had planned to open quotes on the emergency project Monday. A section of the bridge collapsed during a heavy rainstorm on April 6. The project had been declared an emergency and the county had planned to get help paying for a new bridge from the Federal Highway Administration and the paperwork was making its way through that bureaucracy until a snag was discovered.

Harold Simpson, 4403 Freetown Road, said that residents there have waited long enough.

“We’re just fed up with the way it’s all been handled,” Simpson said this morning. “They can use the federal government or the state as a scapegoat, but the supervisors are the ones to blame.”

The bridge was built in 1938 and had an average daily traffic count of 220 before it collapsed. The detour around the bridge is about 10 miles.

At the supervisors’ regular meeting Monday, County Engineer John McKee said he had been notified by federal officials an error had been made in the FHA office in Mississippi and the agency could not fund the project.

He said the only choice the county has now is to redo the project as a Mississippi Department of Transportation State Aid project.

“We are working overtime on that,” McKee said, adding he had already contacted the State Aid Division, and he hoped to gain approval so the supervisors can take quotes when the board meets again Dec. 1.

In other business, county Purchasing Agent Tonga Vinson presented the board with a recommendation on awarding a contract for floor repairs at the Warren-County Vicksburg Public Library.

The board had opened bids on the work at its Nov. 3 meeting and had bids from Commercial Flooring Inc. of Ridgeland for $13,644 and Specialty Services of Hattiesburg for $16,992. The bids were taken under advisement to give Vinson a chance to analyze them.

“We recommend you award the contract to Specialty Services and you reject the bid of Commercial Flooring,” Vinson said.

In explaining why she recommended accepting the higher of the two bids, Vinson said Commercial Flooring’s bid was non responsive.

“They did not include a bid bond, only an application; a local privilege license was not provided, and the bid contained exceptions to the scope of work, including floor prep which, of course, does not meet the minimum specifications of work. The bid of Specialty Services was responsive and contained all the required information and documents,” Vinson said.

She also told the board it should be noted in the minutes the bid was not a low bid for audit purposes.

The board also:

Received a request from McKee to pay $6,500 to Trinity Water Services for moving a water line on the Fisher Ferry Road bridge project.

Approved filing of a plat for a development called Forest Cove off Lake Forest Subdivision since the developer had complied with all county ordinances.