Supervisors award bid for Wellman culvert project

An old deteriorating box culvert on 128th Place near Wellman is going to be replaced later this year.

At Tuesday's meeting, the Washington County Board of Supervisors awarded a bid for the project.

The lone bidder was Iowa Bridge and Culvert of Washington with a project bid of $175,511.70.

“This came in under our estimate of $225,000,” county Engineer Jacob Thorius said. “That will allow us to possibly move some other projects up.”

Thorius said that the estimate was high because “last year, some projects were all over the place” due to a rise in materials costs due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The culvert is on 128th Place, just north of Highway 22, about a mile west of Wellman.

Last month, the board authorized the purchase of additional right of way for the project.

Thorius said that a hole developed on the north side of the current structure and that the stream bed is now lower than the inlet to the culvert.

That causes the flow line of the stream to be lower than the flow line of the box culvert.

“That has created some scouring issues and some undermining issues with water going around the structure,” Thorius said.

Another issue is that, at the current culvert, the stream has a horseshoe bend, making a couple of 90-degree turns.

The new culvert will be installed south of the current one so the water can flow straight through.

Thorius said that the new culvert will be a 10-foot-by-5-foot, 48-foot long box culvert with a 32-foot long flume “to help minimize some of the scour erosion.”

He told the board that the project will be done this summer, with the latest start date in August.

Once underway, the project is expected to take about 25 working days to complete, weather permitting.