Short Span Steel Bridges 
Buried Steel Bridge Saves Ohio County $17,000
Article and images provided by the National Corrugated Steel Pipe Association
In Fall 2023, a deteriorated bridge on County Road 70 in Logan County, Ohio, was replaced with a deep corrugated structural plate buried bridge.
Installing an innovative bridge structure resulted in:
- Total project cost was over $17,000 less than the estimated cost to install a single-span superstructure on new piling and abutments.
- The structural plate option is also expected to have much lower maintenance costs over its lifespan versus a non-buried structure.
Logan County, Ohio, saved $17,000 by using a buried steel bridge for a replacement project.
Soy Transportation Coalition Provides Funding for Innovation
During the summer of 2021, the Logan County Engineer’s Office met with the Soy Transportation Coalition (STC). As stated on their website, STC’s goal is to “position soybean industry stakeholders to benefit from a transportation system that delivers cost-effective, reliable, and competitive service.”
They’ve offered funding opportunities to select rural counties in Midwestern states because they realize “an efficient and well-maintained highway and bridge system is critical to the health of the soybean industry.”
The STC was willing to consider funding pre-construction engineering and surveying services (up to a maximum amount of $10,000) if the county incorporated one of the ‘Top 20″ innovative bridge ideas into the county’s bridge selection.
The Soy Transportation Coalition provided an additional $8,188.93 to help cover the pre-construction engineering and surveying services for the project.
By choosing the structural plate option, one of the SPC’s ‘Top 20″ innovative bridge ideas the county saved an additional $8,188.93 of pre-construction engineering and surveying services.
This project saved money by having lower estimated project costs when compared to the bridges the county typically installs, a single-span superstructure on new piling and abutments, and because these bridges are buried, they’ll deteriorate much slower and require much less maintenance than a non-buried structure.
County Crew Self-Installs Corrugated Structural Arch Buried Bridge
The BR 70-0.28 bridge replacement project that the Logan County Bridge Crew completed this fall involved the replacement of a 29’-6″ single-span steel stringer bridge that was built in 1958.
This bridge underwent a major rehabilitation in 1997 when steel beams that were salvaged from an Ohio Department of Transportation bridge replacement project were reused and placed on the 1958 abutments.
A buried steel bridge was used to replace a 29’-6″ single-span steel stringer bridge that was built in 1958.
Recent bridge inspections revealed these beams were reaching the end of their life, which is why they were torn out and replaced with a 24’-1″ span by 10’-5″ rise deep corrugated structural plate arch.
The structural plate option allowed the Logan County bridge crew to self-install the structure. A preassembly meeting with SSSBA member Contech was held at the bridge site, during which Contech walked the team through the assembly plans and material sheets allowing the Logan County crew to successfully install the bridge.
What are buried steel bridges?
Buried steel bridges provide an economical choices for bridge replacement or bridge rehabilitation.
They essentially are a corrugated steel pipe or structural plate pipe systems that is “buried” with backfill to carry loads through soil-structure interaction. This means the bridge structure itself and the backfill soils surrounding the structure interact with each other to support the loads. In effect, the backfill material is part of the bridge.
Because of this interaction, the bridge structure is typically lighter, and there can be significant savings in structure costs.
There are also many cases where buried bridges can carry heavier loads than traditional bridges because of the benefits of spreading vehicle loads through the fill. Buried bridges do not require abutments; and unless foundation soil conditions are poor, do not typically
require deep foundations.An additional benefit with buried bridges is that they can be tailored to site conditions and geometric requirements. The design includes inputs for site soils and backfill, meaning that locally available materials can often be used in construction and the structure can be tailored to fit the needs of the site and the owner’s requirements.
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