The City Commission is expected to approve a $2.49 million contract this morning to replace the Broadway Bridge over Wolf Creek as part of a 13-year, $45 million bridge replacement or rehabilitation project.

The Broadway Bridge is the ninth of 11 bridges in the city over major waterways the city has targeted since 2004, said Steve Finke , assistant Public Works director. “The final two are the Webster Street Bridge and the Helena Street Bridge. The Broadway project will be done by the end of October 2013,” he said. Construction is expected to begin this year.

He estimates the Webster Bridge will cost around $6 million and the Helena $4 million to $5 million. The city hopes to bid the Webster bridge in 2014 and Helena in 2016.

The city received five bids for the Broadway project, all below the estimated $3.4 million cost. Brumbaugh Construction of Arcanum was the lowest and recommended bid

Most of the money for bridge work has come from federal funds through the Ohio Department of Transportation. “By the time we are finished, we will have invested $5 million to $6 million from city capital funds into the bridge projects,” Finke said.

The city has replaced or rehabbed the Stewart Street, Finlay Street, Washington Street Street, Paul Laurence Dunbar Street, Edwin C. Moses Boulevard, Goodlow Avenue and Rosedale Avenue bridges since 2004.

There are 34 bridges in the city over major waterways, the majority of which are the responsibility of Montgomery County or the state. The Third Street Bridge, for instance, is the responsibility of the county. The Main Street Bridge — both are over the Great Miami River — is a state bridge.

Finke said ODOT is looking at rehabilitation work on the Main Street Bridge.

Rick Splawinski , Montgomery County chief deputy engineer, said the county this month submitted a funding application for the replacement or rehabilitation of the Third Street Bridge.

“We’re hoping to hear by the end of the year on our application to the Local Major Bridge Program,” he said. If approved, the ODOT program — using federal highway funds — would pay 80 percent of the estimated $16.6 million project that would start in 2019.

Given that the engineer’s office has an annual budget of $16 million from license fees and gasoline tax, the Local Major Bridge Program is vital, Splawinski said.

“The ODOT program started in the 1990s when the state was full of major urban bridges all of which were built in the 1920s and 1930s,” he said. “They were all deteriorating at around the same period.”