To promote safe travel over bridges on city streets and ensure eligibility for federal highway funding, cities and towns with bridge-length structures must submit a properly endorsed bridge-load posting certification by December 31.

The Federal Highway Administration and the Arkansas Department of Transportation administer the requirements of the National Bridge Inspection Standards, and the regulations implementing this federal law place the compliance responsibility on the official with jurisdiction over each bridge. In addition to identifying structural deficiencies during the inspection process, the official must also advise the traveling public of any weight restrictions if a bridge is found to not be capable of safely supporting legal-load vehicles. If the bridge is determined to not be capable of safely supporting a minimum of a 3-ton vehicle, it is the official’s responsibility to close the bridge until it is adequately strengthened or replaced.

Arkansas law A.C.A. § 27-85-101, Conservation of Bridges, requires the “administrators of the various public highway, road and street systems shall make every effort to conserve the safe function of the bridges under their jurisdiction pursuant to the findings and recommendations of the bridge safety inspections by the bridge inspection teams of the Arkansas Department of Transportation in accord with the national bridge inspection standards published in the Federal Register.”

Copies of required documents, as well as the Local Government Procedures for Compliance with the National Bridge Inspection Standards manual, are available for download from ARDOT. For questions or additional assistance, contact Todd Russell, district construction engineer, at [email protected] or 870-836-6401.