Bellbrook Avenue is closed at West Second Street as work gets underway to replace the bridge, one of 10 in Greene County that’s getting repaired or replaced by county crews this year.

The bridge, expected to take four weeks to repair, spans a small creek in the city of Xenia and is among the 286 bridges in Greene County that the county engineer’s office is responsible for maintaining.

“This is the sixth bridge we have replaced beams on this year and there are four more that require maintenance,” according to Greene County Engineer Bob Geyer.

Bridges that fall under the county’s purview for maintenance have been maintained with a county-wide tax that passed in 1965.

“As a result, we have some of the best (bridges) in the state,” Geyer has said.

The cost for the county to provide the labor, material and other incidentals on a bridge project cannot exceed $100,000, per Ohio law.

The Bellbrook Avenue bridge project is being done at an estimated cost of $91,348. For the 10 bridge projects that county road crews are on, a little over $838,000 is budgeted this year to address repairs and maintenance, according to the engineer’s office.

Larger bridge projects, such as the McBee Road Bridge at the northern tip of Sugarcreek Twp., must go through the bidding process and be awarded to a contractor.

The bidding process is complete for the McBee Road bridge project, an estimated cost of $250,000, and the work is expected to get underway in the coming months. The other remaining large bridge project is the replacement and widening planned for the South Street bridge in Cedarville, an estimated cost of $275,000, according to county records.

A total of $275 million is being allocated at the state level to address bridge repairs and maintenance this fiscal year, according to Ohio Department of Transportation District 8 spokesman Brian Cunningham.

Greene County falls in Ohio Department of Transportation’s District 8, which is budgeted this fiscal year to receive $29 million in funding for bridge repairs and maintenance.

District 12, the Cleveland area, is getting the most funding in the state this fiscal year at $34 million. That’s a little more than the $31 million slated for District 7 bridges, which includes Montgomery County.

Cunningham said the conditions and number of bridges in a district are among the considerations in determining funding levels.

“One of the main considerations is the quality of the bridges,” he said. “For urban interstates, you generally see a higher amount because they are older, bigger structures that carry greater volumes of traffic.”

Contact this reporter at 937-225-6985 or email Richard.

Wilson@coxinc.com.