T-R PHOTO BY ROBERT MAHARRY  Marshall County Engineer Paul Geilenfeldt sits at his desk during a discussion of the state of the county’s roads and bridges.

With 118 structurally deficient bridges as of the most recent reporting, Marshall County is second in the entire state of Iowa on that number behind only Jasper County.

County Engineer Paul Geilenfeldt said there’s no one reason the number is high, but a lot of it boils down to the simple fact that the bridges — especially the timber structures — are aging and in need of either repair or outright replacement.

“What you run into is that so many of our bridges were built at the beginning of this transportation system. We’ve got a lot of 100-year-old bridges in Marshall County,” Geilenfeldt said.

Currently, there are 108 bridges with some sort of weight restriction in the county and 22 posted for one-lane traffic. Geilenfeldt said the county averages removing at least two to three bridges from the list per year, and recent world events have complicated matters further.

“It doesn’t seem like a lot, but with the way prices have been going since the pandemic and everything else is going up with Putin and his stuff over there. Our fuel prices have gone up like crazy. They are for everybody,” Geilenfeldt said. “Our construction prices, since the start of the pandemic and all the supply chain problems, are up around 30 percent. And steel is up at least 60 percent.”

Even if things settle down, Geilenfeldt isn’t sure prices will drop back to anything resembling pre-pandemic rates anytime soon. He said that although the secondary roads department generally has an annual budget of around $9 million, he could easily spend $20 million a year and “still be behind.” Another issue he’s facing, however, is a shortage of bridge contractors to do the jobs.

“We can throw a lot more money at the problem, but if there isn’t going to be contractors adding crews or new contractors, there’s a limit no matter how much you put into it with money,” Geilenfeldt said.

Although roads and bridges in the county are certainly a challenge going forward, Geilenfeldt said he understands the need to balance fiscal responsibility with the desire to undertake as many projects as possible. With the budget constraints and sparse usage of some gravel roads in little traveled areas, he also knows that difficult decisions like permanently closing a bridge with less than 25 average vehicles per day may be a possibility in the future.

The sheer volume of roads and bridges in Iowa, which ranks near the top among states despite being 26th in land area and 33rd in population, creates its own unique set of challenges.

“We’ve got 930 miles of road in county jurisdiction in Marshall County. Some people get tired of hearing it, but if you put those roads end to end they reach Washington, D.C.,” he said. “So it’s a lot more miles of road than what people really think about.”

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Contact Robert Maharry at 641-753-6611 ext. 255

or rmaharry@timesrepublican.com.