Council unsure which side of bridge issue to come down on

Mark Mahoney

Randolph Times

RANDOLPH —  The Randolph City Council still has yet to decide on the possible reconstruction of the Douglas Street Bridge. 

Council members went into an executive session at the end of a Feb. 23 special meeting at the city auditorium to discuss the crossing in private, but they ultimately made no decisions on the topic. 

“The plan is to do more research on cost-share options, make this project more affordable and have more public hearings to ultimately make an informed decision,” Randolph City Administrator/Clerk Ben Benton said in a follow-up interview. 

During the meeting, the council welcomed people to give input on the possible bridge reconstruction, which would have a price tag of about $3 million. 

Nearly 50 members of the public attended the meeting, which lasted just over an hour and a half. 

Many people provided comments and asked questions about the two-lane Douglas Street Bridge and the cost to reconstruct it. 

Jennifer Gitt is the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project manager who is overseeing the Middle Logan Creek flood risk management work in Randolph. 

She said the first phase of the floodplain project is “substantially complete,” and the Corps of Engineers was going to turn that part over to the city soon. 

Section 205 of the 1948 Flood Control Act authorizes the Corps of Engineers to study, design and construct small flood-control projects in partnership with non-federal government agencies, such as cities, counties, special authorities or units of state government. 

The Corps of Engineers was planning to award the second phase of the Randolph floodplain project to a bidding contractor by Friday, March 4. 

Gitt said that should allow the contractor enough time to complete that portion of the project by January 2024. 

“Phase Two will include the channel widening from where the current project has completed all the way up to” 558th Avenue, she said. 

The second phase of the project will include the removal and replacement of the Main Street Bridge and the 558th Avenue Bridge, which is located on the west side of Randolph. 

The Douglas Street Bridge will have to be removed, but reconstructing it is not part of the overall floodplain project, which has a current cost of $17.4 million. 

Gitt said  a number of factors, including the increasing costs of materials, led the Corps of Engineers to drop the bridge reconstruction from the project’s second phase so work could move forward. 

“Unfortunately, we have hit the federal ceiling of a $10 million limit that the Corps can put toward projects, so reconstruction of the Douglas Street Bridge would have to be 100 percent local sponsors,” she said. 

“As it stands, what happened with Douglas Street is that the road will continue where it is and there will just be signage and a curb stop at the edge of the channel,” she said. “There won’t necessarily be a turnaround. It’ll just kind of be a T or a stop at the end.” 

If the city does decide to have the Douglas Street Bridge reconstructed, Gitt noted that work would not add or reduce any benefits the overall floodplain project would provide when finished. 

“Your floodplain will be complete following Phase Two with or without Douglas Street,” she said. “It won’t have any impacts to that.” 

Benton explained how the community of nearly 880 residents would pay for the reconstruction of the Douglas Street Bridge. 

“We would require a general obligation bond,” he said. “The max term for that bond is 15 years. Payment of that bond would be through our property taxes.” 

Benton reminded the meeting attendees that the cost of reconstructing the Douglas Street Bridge would be approximately $3 million, an increase in price from the $1.3 million discussed during the fall of 2020. 

“Things have gotten a little bit more expensive,” he said. “Just to figure out what that payment would be for property owners, on a $100,000 assessed property, the increase in property taxes would go up approximately $770 annually, plus what you pay now.” 

Benton was originally under the impression the council would have to approve ballot language so Randolph voters could decide on the property tax levy during the May 10 primary election, but he was mistaken. 

“That’s not required for this,” he said. “This general obligation bond does not require a vote.” 

Benton said even without the Douglas Street Bridge, pedestrian and vehicle traffic still can cross the Middle Logan Creek at one of five other bridges within Randolph’s corporate limits on 558th Avenue, Main Street, Sholes Road, Bridge Street and Jackson Street. 

“We just simply would not have the Douglas Street Bridge if the council elects not to pay for the reconstruction,” he said. 

Benton shared his suggestion for what he thinks council members should do on the bridge project. 

“The recommendation I have – both as the clerk of the city and also a property owner – is to hold off on funding the Douglas Street Bridge for a few years,” he said. 

In his opinion, the overall floodplain project should be completed first before council members have the Douglas Street Bridge reconstructed, if that is what they decide to do ultimately. 

Once construction has been completed on the project’s second phase, the city will send a letter and map adjustment to the Federal Emergency Management Agency requesting the floodplain designation in Randolph be changed. 

See BRIDGE, Page 6