HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Reno County is one of 27 counties that will receive a combined total of $5 million under the Kansas Department of Transportation’s Local Bridge Improvement Program.

Requests for transportation funding outpaced available funds by nearly three times.

The bridge program was reinstated by KDOT this past summer to assist cities and counties by providing up to $150,000 toward the replacement or rehabilitation of a bridge on the local roadway system.

This program targets bridges that are 20 to 50 feet in length and have a daily vehicle count of less than 100. Deficient structures that are longer and deficient structures on higher-volume roads also qualify for funding under the program, but these will be limited to the same state funding amounts.

Don Brittain, superintendent with Reno County Public Works, says they have one bridge in the county that was approved for funds.

The county will receive $150,000 to replace a bridge on Arlington Road about two miles north and 1.8 miles west of Castleton. If the county takes another deficient bridge off KDOT’s list, he says they would receive an additional $50,000. Brittain says this will go before the Reno County Commission to approve replacing an additional bridge at the county’s expense in order to receive the additional money.

The total cost to replace the bridge on Arlington Road is estimated to be as much as $700,000, maybe as much as $800,000.