Pettis County Donates $200K to Help Repair Washington Street Bridge

A little over 24 hours after MoDOT forced the City of Sedalia to close the Washington Street Bridge to due to safety concerns, the Pettis County Commission stepped up and donated $200,000 to help with the cost of repairing the railroad bridge, one of only two in the State Fair City.

Eastern Commissioner Israel Baeza, flanked by western Commissioner Jim Marcum and Presiding Commissioner Bill Taylor, made the announcement at 1:30 Friday afternoon at the Pettis County Courthouse.

“With the announcement of the closure of Washington Road Bridge, the Pettis County Commission has taken decisive action, and is pleased to announce that we're allocating up to $200,000 to the City of Sedalia to go towards the repair of their bridge,” Baeza said.

“This is all about public safety and putting the interests of our citizens above all else. This bridge is a lifeline for Pettis County residents on the east side of Sedalia, and I am happy to have the support of the entire Commission. This critical piece of infrastructure connects families to their loved ones, students to schools, workers to their jobs, goods to stores, provides critical access and evacuation routes in case of an emergency,” he noted.

“We have personally talked to Mayor Dawson, Second Ward Councilman (Chris) Marshall and Second Ward Councilwoman (Tins) Boggess to express our desire to offer our assistance, and willingness to work together to get this resolved as soon as possible,” Baeza concluded.

Eastern Commissioner Marcum said he was frustrated. “We know difficult when MoDOT bridge inspectors come to town every two years. And if they find a problem with something, they're supposed to tell us there's a deficient list that you start working with, because maybe in a couple years, it might close. My biggest concern is, why didn't MoDOT put Washington Bridge on the deficient list two years ago when they were here? Did they really inspect it? It cannot fail that much in two years, what we've seen in the pictures of it. I know the City feels the same, because we feel so sorry for our patrons, trying to help them find a new way to get to town, when we close the bridges down. And it just makes life difficult for everybody,” Marcum stated.

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Presiding Commissioner Taylor, in his remarks, credited Baeza and Marcum for their efforts and using their knowledge of bridge repair and replacement.

“We've had three bridges close in the county here just of late, and so this is an issue where we try to take care of those where they are closed off, but these guys went to work, rolled up their sleeves and decided quickly to try and help the City get this bridge going as soon as possible, because we want to try to help all Pettis County citizens,” Taylor said.

Baeza said the $200,000 will come out of Pettis County's Road & Bridge Fund.

“We do understand the importance of the closure of this bridge. It is, for a lot of people, the only access point in and out from the north side. So obviously we understand that this is something that the City's struggling with, and we want to offer our assistance, and when we discussed it with the Mayor and Council members, they were very appreciative. And we really mean it, we want to work towards getting this done as quick as possible. Because at the end of the day, this is the best thing for the citizens of our county, especially those who live on the east side of Sedalia,” Baeza said.

Baeza added that the funds are unrestricted, meaning they can be spent on engineering services and/or repair costs.

Marcum noted that the Commissioners are the “keeper of the roads” in Pettis County. “And this is a pretty vital, important piece of road to take care of,” Marcum added.

Baeza stressed that “we have a large inventory of bridges in our jurisdiction, so we are very familiar with working with bridges, so part of that assistance is offering our grants director, offering a little bit of our expertise, wherever that may help. We're playing a small part in a big process, Bridges like this don't get built overnight. We understand it's going to be a long process, but we want to be part of the solution.”

Baeza noted that the Commission will be following up with an official letter to City Council, expressing their desire to help.

Sedalia Mayor Andrew Dawson said "the pledge of $200,000.00 is welcomed and appreciated.”

Second Ward Councilwoman Tina Boggess, when contacted Saturday, said that she was very appreciative of the commissioners allocating $200K for assistance with bridge repair.

“To me, this is how government should work together for the betterment of the people who elected us. I'm gratefully thankful for what our county commisioners have offered to do in a joint effort towards the repair of the Washington Street Bridge,” Boggesss commented.

“The City has been planning on replacing that bridge for a while now, due to its age and some other things. We've applied in the past for grants and any other monetary possibilities. But this recent development has changed our timeline for the work to be done on it. We know that this bridge is quite old, and when we saw the rusted-out parts, it now becomes number one on our priority list. And so with the Commissioners calling and saying hey, this is a vital structure in the City of Sedalia. Totally we agree with that, and totally again, as I say, we are very appreciative of what they are willing to do,” Boggess told KSIS.

Boggess recalled a conversation with Commissioner Baeza in which he said that some may say $200,000 isn't a whole lot when it comes to major bridge repair, “but I say every little bit helps to get us where we need to go.”

She went on to say that “I can only imagine that this is going to be at least one million-plus dollars, trying to replace this. Not just fix it, but replace this bridge so that it's a new structure.”

Councilwoman Boggess noted that she realizes that the deck was redone over a decade ago, but that is not the problem now, it's the support beams that are rusted out.

“When I went and looked at it on Friday, it was just unbelievable. There's a lot of rust and corrosion,” Boggess said.

First Ward Councilman and Chairman of the Public Works Committee Tom Oldham noted that he is aware of a federal grant called a RAISE grant.

“So I've instructed City staff to look for this grant, which is about three-fourths of a million dollars,” he told KSIS.

If the grant writing is successful and accepted, the money would not arrive until Fiscal Year 2025, Oldham stressed.

In the meantime, “we can use the funds from the City, the County and MoDOT to repair our bridge, but we're also going to take a look at this RAISE grant to see what we can do about a total restoration of the bridge in the future.” Councilman Oldman said on Saturday.

Oldham added that he was shocked at the deterioration of the bridge supports over a two-year period, which is when Washington Street Bridge was last inspected by MoDOT.