Drafter
Clerk 04/12/2018
Title
AN ORDINANCE making a net supplemental appropriation of $515,000 to the roads operating fund and a net supplemental appropriation of $5,602,000 to the roads major maintenance capital fund to begin immediate design efforts to replace four restricted bridges that impede safe passage for heavy vehicles and to create a 2018 bridge safety program; and amending the 2017-2018 Biennial Budget Ordinance, Ordinance 18409, Sections 61 and 132 as amended, and Attachment A, as amended.
Body
STATEMENT OF FACTS:
1. Following a bridge collapse, and, more importantly, a recent decision to allow heavier trucks on roadways, the Federal Highway Administration developed new calculations for determining the weight that a bridge can safely carry.
2. Federal, state and local governments are evaluating publicly-owned vehicular bridges using the new criteria and formulas and are determining whether additional weight restrictions must be placed on bridges under this new requirement.
3. King County owns and maintains one hundred seventy-eight vehicular bridges.
4. King County is systematically evaluating each of its vehicular bridges based on current condition assessment and each bridge's unique materials, utilizing the new complex Federal Highway Administration formulas.
5. Of the fifty-seven bridges evaluated to date, the road services division has determined new vehicle weight restrictions are necessary for twenty-one bridges.
6. Some of those bridges are restricted from transporting certain types of fire apparatus, garbage trucks, cement trucks and other heavy vehicles.
7. Those restrictions on heavy vehicles and resulting detours could pose public safety concerns if not promptly and systematically addressed.
8. Four of the newly restricted bridges were prioritized to begin a bridge safety program based on criteria including the type of vehicles that are restricted, the impact on traffic flow, the alternative routes for heavier vehicles and t...
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