Lancaster County engineers to inspect bridges because of high waters

Posted By: Alden German
agerman@klkntv.com

Torrential rain since the start of the month has caused headaches for many in east Nebraska, from the cancellation of the Cornhuskers game, flooding, park, and road closures.

Over six inches of rain have fallen since September 1st, making it the wettest start to September ever. This has created concern for infrastructure near creeks and other large bodies of water, particularly roads and bridges. Fortunately, waters have already begun to back off.

"If we get no more rainfall I would expect these creeks to continue to fall through the day and night and that maybe we could be close to normal flow on Saturday or late Friday night," said Pam Dingman, an engineer for Lancaster County.

Lancaster County engineers will inspect its nearly 1500 miles of roads, 1100 of which are gravel, as well as many of its bridges, for water damage. The county has over 300 bridges, but 50 are especially vulnerable to flood damage. However, waters still need to drop several more feet and the mud will need to dry out some before they begin.

"Right now we’re just doing the surface inspections to make sure that the bridges are still stable," Dingman said. "As the water goes down and we have the ability to get underneath those bridges and probe them and determine whether those abutments at the bottom are still solid, that’s what we’ll do."

Water levels Wednesday had already fallen several feet from the night before, but are still well above normal. Salt Creek, for instance, normally runs three to five feet deep depending on the location. Recent rains have caused it to swell to nearly 20 feet at its highest in some spots.

The bridge over Salt Creek at Pioneers sustained some damage from the historic floods of 2015. In fact, the 2015 flood is still causing some problems today, particularly with tree debris.

"It’s kind of been a continuous problem for us since 2015. My jurisdiction ends at the county right-of-way so as we get this debris up against our bridges and box culverts we continue to come and clean it out."

Work to repair the Pioneers Salt Creek bridge was scheduled to start soon, but recent rains have pushed that back by at least a couple weeks. In the meantime, people have been cautioned to stay out of the high creeks and other flooded areas.