Monroe gets $199K state grant to fix Salzman Road bridge

Monroe accepted an emergency grant of $199,928 from the Ohio Public Works Commission to rehabilitate an existing bridge structure on South Salzman Road.

City Council accepted the grant as an emergency resolution due to a requirement to do so within 10 days of award notification.

Public Works Director Dan Arthur said the current bridge will be lined with another metal bridge structure and the void space will be filled with grout.

He said the rehab project will provide the city another estimated 50-year life span of the bridge without having to close the road to make the improvement. With Hankins Road being the only other access point to the large businesses south of the bridge, the city could not properly detour the truck traffic to replace the bridge in a typical construction process, Arthur said.

“Due to the uniqueness of this project, we were able to secure emergency grant funding through the Ohio Public Works Commission,” Arthur said in an email.

The grant represents 78 percent of the project’s cost of $255,010, and he said the city is partnering with the Butler County Transportation Improvement District for Jobs and Commerce funding.

Arthur said he anticipates receiving bids for this project by the end of the month and working with these organizations to finalize the exact funding amounts.

He said this is not a joint project with the Ohio Department of Transportation. Arthur said the city looked at participating with ODOT a few years ago through their Municipal Bridge program, but the project would not qualify since the road could not be closed for a proper detour to construct a new bridge.

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