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17 <br /> <br />Bridge Maintenance and Construction <br />Cass County maintains 578 structures of which 229 span 20 feet in length or greater. Inevitably these bridges <br />will deteriorate over time. Maintenance, reconstruction, replacement, and removal needs to and does occur. <br />The NDDOT conducts bi-annual inspections, with consultants, of all structures greater than 20 feet in length <br />giving County officials an accurate inventory of existing bridge conditions. This inventory is used to conduct` <br />planning for the most effective projects on bridges most in need. In Cass County the average age of a bridge is <br />35 years old. Of the 229 major structures, about 22% were built before 1960. Designed to the standards of <br />their time, many of these bridges have reached the end of their design life or cannot handle the truck traffic of <br />today. If we assumed a 70-year lifespan for our structures, we would need to replace an average of eight <br />bridges per year. Since so many bridges are now over 50 years old, over the next twenty years we will have a <br />higher number of bridge replacements, further straining our finances. <br />Cass County Bridges: Current Status of 20 foot or Longer Bridges on County <br />Highways <br />Appendix 7 shows bridges of 20 feet or longer on County Highways. On average, these bridges are in fair <br />condition. Currently 8 bridges are required to be posted on County Roads. These bridges are planned to be <br />replaced within the next 5 to 7 years. The NDDOT staff no longer inspects all 20 foot or longer bridges on a 2- <br />year cycle and rates each on a 0-100 scale. Instead, now this work is done by consultants. The old sufficiency <br />rating system is now replaced by placing bridges in Good, Fair and Poor categories. Now bridges need be in the <br />Poor and Fair categories as well as being load posted for potential federal funding for replacement or <br />rehabilitation. These structures vary in condition from poor, fair, and good. There are 1 poor, 38 fair and 51 <br />good county bridges. These bridges are replaced or repaired on a priority basis. <br />Cass County Bridges: Current Status of 20 foot or Longer Bridges on Township <br />Roads <br />Appendix 8 shows bridges of 20 feet or longer on township highways. These structures vary in condition from <br />poor, fair and good. There are 7 poor, 60 fair and 72 good township bridges. These bridges are replaced or <br />repaired on a priority basis with input from the township officials.