ODOT bridge inspections continue

The ODOT snooper truck visited another Toledo bridge Tuesday, a unique bridge for the area.

Of the 950 bridges overseen by ODOT in northwest Ohio, two of them are drawbridges.

Rebecca Dangelo with ODOT’s District 2 office explains, "There's this one, and there's one out in Port Clinton, and that's it for our district in Northwest Ohio."

And she says inspecting them takes a little longer. "With a bridge like this, there are a lot of moving parts and pieces that allow it to open and close,” she says. “A lot of our bridges are straight beam bridges, that need that capability, that don't move."

The Craig Memorial Bridge first opened to drivers in 1957. So, after carrying traffic for more than six decades, preventing breakdowns is necessary.

Dangelo tells 13abc, "As time is happening, bridges over water tend to rust and deteriorate quicker. As the bridges continue to age, we want to make sure that we're watching them. It's a lot less money to do something preventative than it is to wait for it to deteriorate, and then do a major project"

That's why projects like the dehumidification on the High Level Bridge are important. “To blow that steady stream of air through the cables, that will help keep it from rusting, "explains Dangelow. "And that’s just another way that we can prolong the life of the bridge.”

She says that the next bridge on the list is the Veterans Glass City Skyway Bridge, and that one could take up to three weeks, as workers must work around the construction project that is ongoing on that bridge. Dangelo says, “We’re looking at how we can reduce those traffic impacts, working with the project that’s already up there.”

But, it's not just the construction. Dangelo says the shear mass and setup of the bridge play a role. “It’s a very long bridge, and there’s a lot of ramps, different things that go to it that are elevated and are considered bridges. So, there’s a lot of inspections that have to happen with that.”