City Administrator Dustin Lent (right) explains the rehabilitation of the Dix-Toledo pedestrian bridge, as Mayor Joseph Kuspa listens during the June 15 city council meeting.
By SUE SUCHYTA
Sunday Times Newspapers
SOUTHGATE – The City Council approved a change order June 15 authorizing the rehabilitation of the damaged pedestrian bridge support over Toledo-Dix, near city hall, library, civic arena and police station.
In a June 9 memo to the council, Mayor Joseph Kuspa proposed, based on the city engineer’s recommendation, that $49,500, plus a 10 percent contingency, for a total of $54,450, be awarded to Z Contractors, using funds from the major street fund account.
City Administrator Dustin Lent said the bridge is temporarily shut down, and this is the first phase needed to fix it.
John Miller, project construction manager for Hennessey Engineers, said SME, the city’s structural engineering consultant, and Z Contractors, the bridge contractor, did the field review work of the damage to the support, with SME developing the structural report and Z Contractors providing a repair cost estimate based on the structural support.
The east bridge stair support has a crack in the support column, and there are broken welds at the anchor plate supporting the east stairs.