Kiowa County Bridge Repair Kicks Off State Program

Tuesday, May 2nd 2006, 5:42 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- The Oklahoma Transportation Commission approves its first contracts under a $100-million program to repair or replace the worst bridges on state highways.

The commissioners Monday voted for spending $670,000 to repair two bridges on Oklahoma Highway 44 in Kiowa County.

Oklahoma Department of Transportation director Gary Ridley says preliminary work had been done on the bridges, but the money to fix them wasn't expected until 2011 under ODOT's long-range construction program.

Ridley said ODOT hopes to repair 35 to 40 bridges with the $100-million. More bridges will be fixed with $25-million allocated for county projects.

He says ODOT is concentrated on repairing bridges so structurally deficient they cannot absorb the shock of large trucks, those with loads of 45 tons or more.

There are 137 such bridges in Oklahoma, including 15 with load limits of 15 tons that can't take the weight of school buses traveling on them.