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A bridge, in Ohio, is defined as a structure with a clear span of ten (10) feet or more, measured along the
centerline of the roadway. The Lorain County Engineer’s Office is currently responsible for the
inspection of 232 bridges (up 1 from 2016). At the end of the year, the County Engineer reports the
condition of each inventory bridge to the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT). ODOT maintains
a master inventory of every bridge in the State. ODOT also inspects the bridges on State and Federal
routes. Each state then reports their data to the Federal Highway Administration. In total, the State of
Ohio has approximately 45,000 bridges that are inspected by various counties, municipalities and ODOT,
the second largest inventory of all states. Sixty percent of these bridges in the state of Ohio are
maintained by County Engineers.
Background
After the collapse of the Silver Bridge, 1967 Point Pleasant, West Virginia, the United States Congress
added a section to the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1968 to establish a National Bridge Inspection
Standard. Ohio established its own inventory and reporting in 1973 to fulfill these requirements.
The collapse of the I-35W Bridge in Minneapolis on August 1, 2007, brought the next big change to the
County Bridge Program. After the collapse, the County Engineers Association, ODOT and the Federal
Highway Administration (FHWA) reached an agreement in 2009 that all federal bridges (i.e. bridges 20
ft. or greater) must have a load analysis performed by October 1, 2013. Lorain County has performed an
analysis on each of their federal bridges, updating and maintaining a file for each bridge.
Since then Lorain County continues to perform analysis on bridges when required by the State or FHWA,
as well as when routine annual inspections indicate that a new analysis may be needed.
Bridge Facts
• The Lorain County Engineer's Office has 232 structures on the current bridge inventory, which
we are responsible for inspecting and maintaining.
• 110 of the structures are over 20 feet in span length, which is the length that the National
Bridge Inspection Standards requires inspection for. These structures qualify for federal
funding. All other structures are between 10 and 20 foot span, which are required by the State
of Ohio to inspect.
• 43.7 years is the average age of the bridge decks of the structures that Lorain County is
responsible for. It is worth noting that many of the abutments are actually much older than the
decks as many decks have been replaced with the reuse of the old abutments.
• The county annually inspects all bridges on the current bridge inventory as required by the ORC.
As part of this inspection, a report is made and bridges are rated on a scale from 9-0. With 9
being excellent condition, and 0 being failed. See sheet 5 of this report for a summary of ratings.
Types of Bridges
Lorain County Bridges consist of several different types, using a variety of materials such as concrete,
steel, sandstone and timber. All of the bridges that Lorain County Engineer's Office are responsible for
have been classified below based on the superstructure (deck) make-up. The following shows the
various bridge types throughout the County.
Steel Beam
• 30 (12.9%) bridges have steel beam
decks.
• Beams can have concrete or steel
decking with asphalt driving surfaces
• Can be single or multi-span. The East
31st street bridge (305 ft. span) is a steel
beam bridge.
• Most commonly used in Lorain County
from the 1950’s-1960’s.
• Abutments usually concrete capped
Lowell Street Bridge #1126 piles.
(Center Span - Steel Beams)
60
Number of Bridges
50
40
2017 Bridges
30
2016 Bridges
20
2014 Bridges
10
0
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0
General Appraisal