Waite Park City Council to Discuss Application for Infrastructure Grant

(KNSI) — The Waite Park City Council Monday night will hold a work session to discuss applying for an infrastructure projects grant.

The U.S. Department of Transportation announced it was making $1.5 billion in RAISE grants available for 2023. The minimum available for suburban areas is $1 million. Five million dollars is available for urban areas. The maximum grant amount is $25 million. The funds will be awarded on a competitive basis for surface transportation infrastructure projects that will improve safety; environmental sustainability; quality of life; mobility and community connectivity; economic competitiveness and opportunity, including tourism; state of good repair; partnership and collaboration; and innovation.

The council will discuss whether there is interest in applying and which projects it could be used for.

One possible project is replacing the crumbling Bridge 6819 on County Road 75 over the Sauk River in Waite Park. Engineers say it’s safe to use, but it’s in rough shape, and it is cheaper to replace the bridge than repair it.

Last summer, Stearns County Engineer Jodi Teich said the bridge deck “has exposed rebar reinforcement steel underneath it, and that’s corroding because of the exposure to moisture. So, that makes it lose strength. We’ve got some exposed steel that’s rusting and has some section loss on the steel beams. And, of course, the underside of the deck has a lot of concrete delamination, where that concrete is falling off.”

She says there is also concrete falling off the support piers and the abutments, and the bridge’s bearings which prevent lateral movement to the bridge and allow the bridge to function in temperature extremes, are frozen up because of pack rust.

There is a 20% local match requirement. The submission deadline is February 28th.

The work session starts at 5:00.

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