Watching bridge inspections

Accelerated inspections were ordered for most of the 12 under-deck truss bridges under ODOT’s supervision.

CINCINNATI (AP) — Ohio Department of Transportation inspectors on catwalks and in cherrypickers called “snoopers” began an unusually high-profile look Tuesday at one of the state’s bridges similar in design to the I-35W bridge that collapsed into the Mississippi River in Minneapolis last week.

“We knew there was public interest and media interest in seeing our inspectors out in the field,” said ODOT spokesman Scott Varner.

The department invited coverage of inspections of under-deck, truss bridges in Cincinnati and Cleveland, but the Cleveland inspection was postponed until today because of heavy rain.

“It’s pretty much a visual inspection unless we see something that looks suspicious,” said Brandon Collett, bridge engineer for ODOT District 8 in southwest Ohio.

Two inspectors were to take two days to go over every foot of the decks, railings, piers and trusses of the nearly 70-year-old Fifth Street viaduct, looking for potential problems, Collett said.

“You name it, we’re looking for it,” he said.

Also Tuesday, workers from the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet inspected the Highland Avenue bridge over I-471 just south of downtown Cincinnati.

The ODOT inspection was remarkably low-key. People in cars whizzing overhead would have no idea that inspectors were checking for problems below.

The cause of the Minneapolis bridge collapse has not been determined. Five people are known dead, five were in critical condition and eight remained missing Tuesday as Navy and FBI dive teams joined the search, and officials planned to begin clearing the debris.

Under-deck, truss bridges are considered “fracture critical” because they have no additional construction to compensate for a broken truss, Collett said. The under-deck design is still used, especially on long spans, he said, but in many cases, designers choose a cheaper girder design.

Ohio Transportation Director James Beasley, after requests from Gov. Ted Strickland and U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters, ordered accelerated inspections of most of the 12 under-deck truss bridges under ODOT’s supervision.

Two spans were inspected last week, two are to be done this week and five more by the end of next week. Of the remaining three, one was inspected in November, one in March and one in May, and they are not scheduled for new inspections.

Local responsibility

ODOT also was helping county engineers refine a list of about 170 similarly designed bridges that are the responsibility of local governments.

Ohio law mandates that all bridges be inspected every year. In that sense, the inspections in Cincinnati and Cleveland are nothing special.

“We’re not doing anything different from what we normally do,” Collett said.

Although the Fifth Street viaduct was built in 1938, it got a new concrete deck less than 10 years ago, and the recent light-green paint job on the steel trusses makes it easier to spot corrosion.

“If you see brown on green, it’s a telltale sign,” Collett said.