By Kellen Olshefski
Editor
The Walworth County Public Works Committee discussed the possibility of finding funding for the Town of Sharon’s Peter’s Road Bridge.
The bridge was closed last summer after being deemed unsafe for vehiclular traffic by the county. Walworth County Director of Central Services Kevin Brunner said at the meeting Monday the Peters Road bridge is owned by the Wisconsin River Rail Transit Commission and the maintainer is the Wisconsin Southern Railroad.
Brunner said because it’s owned by the state, the state itself cannot apply for state funding and it either has to be the Town of Sharon or Walworth County.
Brunner said at the Feb. 16 meeting the likelihood of the bridge opening is remote unless it’s replaced at grade or replaced in its current form. He said the county needs to make a decision on this soon, as it needs to do some more engineering work to put together an estimate on what it would cost to replace the bridge before applications for state funding are due in the beginning of June.
Walworth County Supervisor – and Town of Sharon chairman – said at the meeting the township has never been through the process of applying for bridge funding though somewhere along the line, one of the two governmental bodies needs to take “ownership,” so to say, to get the funds if the project qualifies.
“It’s something we have to do to get into the program,” he said, noting it’s a two-year program and if they don’t get an application in, it will have to wait another two years.
Brandl said the township doesn’t have a preference as to who takes the lead, as it needs to be done, though he thinks it should be whoever would have more pull.
“Whichever way it has to be, it has to be, we just need to get going on it,” he said.
Brunner said the county would have to prioritize its bridges if it submits the application and noted there are about 13 bridges below the 50 sufficiency rating threshold, the level at which bridges should be replaced.
“It puts the county in kind of a difficult position, we’re trying to rank these bridges, plus we have our own to rank,” he said. “I think this year, talking to some of the municipalities, we could have eight to 10 applications.”
Brunner said the county would look at both the sufficiency rating of the bridge and the amount of daily traffic when ranking bridges for applications.
County Administrator David Bretl said he thinks it’s OK if the county decides to take the lead on the grant application, but if it’s going to do it for one municipality, it should be prepared to do it for all if they ask.
Supervisor Joe Schaefer said his nephew who is an engineer up in Baraboo told him he had just learned the federal government is sending millions of dollars to Wisconsin for bridge funding and to be prepared to make out grants, which could be good news for the county.
Brunner said he thinks what needs to be done is for the county and township to meet with the Wisconsin DOT and see what they recommend.
“This is unique situation where we have a bridge, it’s on a town road, it’s owned by the state and it’s maintained by the county,” he said. “There’s not a single bridge like this in the county.”
The committee voted in favor of directing the town and county to get together with the DOT to further discuss the issue and possibilities moving forward.
