Hidden damage revealed as contractors started work on the joints of the northbound Broadway river bridge will mean a slight delay in a completion date, and a modest increase in cost.
Scotts Bluff County Roads Superintendent Steve Baird told Commissioners last week the original plan for more limited repairs to the eight joints of the span just won’t work,
“Once they got into tearing this apart, these joints were a lot more deteriorated than we first thought,” said Baird. “So, getting in this little space, they decided, was not going to be substantial enough to get that clean, to get a seal in there, glued in there.”
Baird said widening the repair area around the joints requires removal of the concrete by hand and jack hammers, as heavy equipment use could cause more damage by fracturing the surrounding concrete, which he noted wasn’t very thick.
He told the Board the repair change and required stress test for the new concrete will push opening of the bridge to Sept. 20 at the earliest, with an additional cost of nearly $17,000.
