Building bipartisan bridges

The Saratoga Town Council will be practicing bipartisanship and building bridges in the very literal sense.

During the March 15 meeting of the governing body, Mayor Creed James read correspondence received from the Wyoming Department of Transportation (WYDOT) regarding the Federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, also known as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. 

"It says the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill dedicated $45 million per year for five years to the State of Wyoming to replace or rehabilitate bridges in poor condition. Poor condition includes severe or critical condition bridges. A minimum of 15 percent of these funds are to be used on local government owned bridges and is federally funded at 100 percent," said James. "There are currently 86 bridges in poor condition that are not already scheduled for repair or improvement owned by 29 local agencies. Many of these structures are significant in size and may be challenging for local agencies to replace. This plan will fund the replacement or rehabilitation of the largest bridge in poor condition in the 29 local agencies' inventory. This will address 44 of the 86 bridges in poor condition."

According to James, the letter from WYDOT had identified the Texas Trail bridge-the letter pinpointed Condict Court-as one of the bridges which was in poor condition. The bridge is behind the Saratoga Hot Springs Resort and a dedication plate on either side of the bridge puts the date of dedication as 1929, making the bridge over 90 years old.

"If the agency concurs with the structure listed, please notify the district engineer in writing and include documentation showing the structure is under the jurisdiction of the local agency and within a dedicated public right-of-way," James read from the letter.

The letter went on to read if the agency had a different structure it believed required rehabilitation or replacement, it would need to submit a substitution form and documentation showing the need. 

"Once written concurrence has been received by WYDOT or a substitution is approved by WYDOT, a cooperative agreement will be initiated," James read from the letter. "The project will be placed in WYDOT's State Transportation Improvement Plan. WYDOT will be responsible for planning, design and construction of the project."

After reading the letter, James asked for input from members of the council.

"I would say that that bridge is a pretty bridge, but I'm not one to balk at upgrading infrastructure," said Councilmember Jon Nelson. "I think, while this funding is available, we should let WYDOT spend the money here in town." 

"That bridge is extremely old," added Councilmember Ron Hutchins. "I know it's inspected every year. That bridge was moved there years ago and I think it does need refurbishing."

The same day, the Board of Carbon County Commissioners also discussed the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Kandis Fritz, Carbon County Road & Bridge coordinator, said WYDOT had identified four bridges in the county which qualified. While neither Fritz nor the commissioners publicly stated which bridges those were, Fritz said she knew of four other bridges which would be of higher priority than the ones identified by the state department.

"I do have other bridges that have higher traffic numbers but, if I tell them no, I don't want them to take the money away at 100 percent," said Fritz.

"I think they'd be open to having a local perspective on what bridge so long as it falls in their rating. I'm sure they'd be somewhat open to it," said Commissioner John Espy. "They're going through their matrix and I think we can add our matrix to it."

The Saratoga Town Council voted unanimously to submit documentation regarding the bridge to WYDOT.

The next meeting of the Saratoga Town Council will be at 6 p.m. on April 5 at Saratoga Town Hall.