At the August 30th Washington County Board of Supervisors meeting, the board approved joining a joint Bridge Investment Program (BIP) with seven other counties in an attempt to acquire funds for public works projects. Washington County has volunteered to be the main point of contact for this BIP, representing Buchanan, Cedar, Delaware, Hamilton, Jones, Monroe, and Scott Counties.

At the meeting, Washington County Engineer Jacob Thorius explained, what Washington’s responsibilities will be as the main point of contact, and why they joined this BIP. “Every County is still responsible for its own project and its own cost. With us being the point of contact, when something is asked for, the individual counties give us their information so we can work as one group instead of as eight individuals.  We joined as a group because we feel like it’s more enticing to the grant reviewer, with us being a larger project and working together to solve transportation problems in Iowa.”

Washington County is looking to upgrade the Skunk River Bridge in southwest Washington County, which has an estimated replacement cost of $8.5 million, which is more than nineteen times Washington County’s estimated annual allocation of Highway Bridge Program funds. Thorius noted that if Washington County were to try and save for this project individually, it would take around 19 years.