ELIZABETHTOWN — AAA recently released their rankings for North Carolina’s bridges and Bladen County has several that were named as substandard or functionally obsolete. The N.C. Division of Highways District Engineer Drew Cox, however, says all the bridges in Bladen County are safe.

Many of Bladen’s bridges were built in the 1940s and ’50s and those structures “age out.”

The AAA report ranked the bridge on College Street in Clarkton as No. 408 and the bridge on Tar Heel Ferry Road that crosses the Cape Fear River as No. 833 and its counterpart on N.C. 11 is ranked at No. 882. All three were shown by the report to be structurally deficient. Bridge No. 3 on U.S. 701, which crosses Brown’s Creek, was ranked at No. 565 and labeled functionally obsolete. These four bridges in Bladen received the highest rankings from AAA.

Other Bladen County bridges were mentioned, but ranked much lower in the report.

“The bridges at Tar Heel and N.C. 11 get a lot of truck traffic,” said Cox. 

According to N.C. DOT’s Web site, the term structurally deficient means “there are elements of the bridge that need to be monitored and/or repaired.” Those bridges labeled as functionally obsolete means simply “those bridges were built to standards that are not used today.”

The bridges at N.C. 11 and Tar Heel have cross bracing overhead and those cross braces occasionally get hit by trucks moving logging equipment and other items. When that occurs, Cox said repairs are made as quickly as possible.

The bridge at Tar Heel was constructed in 1955 and the truss section is about 300 feet in length. Cox said there are no current postings for that bridge.

“At Tar Heel we monitor to ensure that we are not running into issues needing to be addressed,” said Cox. 

The bridge at Tar Heel is up for replacement in the North Carolina Transportation Improvement Plan but the weak economy has slowed the process of letting contracts.

“We’re not going to be letting anyone on it if its unsafe,” said Cox. “The bridges over the Cape Fear River are not posted and they carry more truck traffic than other bridges in the county.

“The bridges at Highway 11 and Tar Heel are painted and they don’t necessarily look the greatest in the world,” he added.

The bridge on College Street near Clarkton crosses Brown’s Creek and was constructed in 1949. AAA’s assessment labeled this bridge as structurally deficient. 

According to Cox, this bridge had timber pilings and a crutch bent supporting the bridge deck and DOT had to construct a new crutch bent under the original bent.

“It’s safe to drive on it,” said Cox.

The bridge known to DOT as no. 3 on U.S. 701 was ranked by the report at no. 565 and identified as functionally obsolete. The bridge crosses Brown’s Creek and was constructed in 1923. It is a single span bridge measuring about 47 feet.

“Basically, we wouldn’t build that bridge the same way today,” said Cox. 

The bridge has wooden headwalls that protect the caps and there is an issue with washing behind the headwalls. 

“Yea we got a lot of aging bridges,” said Cox. “But, they have lasted a long time.

“Anytime we get water over the road we attempt to close the bridges because we have to get divers to check the pilings to ensure they are safe before re-opening the bridges.”

Cox said DOT inspects all bridges every two years per federal guidelines.