ODOT official: Cracked overpass column no threat

MARION — A cracked column under the State Street overpass poses no safety threat, an engineer with the Ohio Department of Transportation said Friday morning.

Tony Turowski, with ODOT District 6, said the column will be repaired, but its condition is not dangerous to the public.

“That’s not our assessment at this time,” Turowski said, standing a few feet from the column along a service road under the overpass.

Marion City Councilman Josh Daniels contacted ODOT about 8:30 a.m. Friday after discovering the crack while responding to a resident’s concern about the Prospect Street overpass, and ODOT personnel were on the scene before 10:30 a.m.

The response pleased Daniels.

“When government acts efficiently, it deserves the credit,” he said. “That’s pretty damn good service. They’re looking at the column within an hour and a half.”

As Daniels said, the cracks are evident from the base to the decking of the seventh column from the overpass’ southern end, “and they are deep.” Shallower horizontal cracks also are visible on the T-shaped portion at the top of the column, and debris lies at the column’s base.

Marion city assistant engineer Scott Bishop, who also was made aware of the damage, said: “We’re going to place barricades near the debris, just to be proactive.”

The barricades are intended “just to keep people out of the general vicinity,” he said. Motorists will be able to continue to use the service roads under the overpass.

The bridge was due for its yearly inspection in October, but concern about the cracks was enough to bring ODOT personnel to Marion on Friday, Turowski said. Federal requirements call for bridge inspections every two years, while ODOT requires such inspections every year, he said.

“If there’s any kind of safety concern, we want to see it for ourselves,” he said. “We try to address it as soon as we can.”

He said the column will be repaired either in-house by ODOT or by a contractor. He didn’t say when the repair would be made.

Damage such as that seen in the column often is the result of road salt and deicing chemicals splashing up after they are applied to the road during the winter. He said the cracks also could be “age-related deterioration.”

He said increased automobile traffic on the overpass expected for the Marion Popcorn Festival next week is not a concern.

“It’s designed for that full traffic,” he said.

jjarvis@marionstar.com

740-375-5154

Twitter: @jmwjarvis