Mercer County Engineer's Office
History
In 1800, when Mercer County was formed from Allegheny
County, there were 3,228 residents. Four years later, it was
divided into six large townships. By 1840, the population
had grown to 32,873. The initial road system in the county
followed old Indian trails. Stream crossings were either
made by fording the shallow portions of the streams, or
small log or stone bridges were constructed. These often
washed out after every major storm.
As additional townships were formed and the road system expanded, it became necessary to construct more substantial bridges. With so few people living in the rural areas of the county, it was often too expensive for the townships to build a bridge. Whenever a bridge was necessary and the cost was more than the townships could afford, they petitioned the courts for appointment of Board of Viewers.
The court would appoint three individuals to view
the site and report their findings to the court. The viewers
would examine the location of the proposed bridge and
ascertain that it would be a worthwhile and necessary public
improvement. The viewers would also, on occasion, recommend
the size of the structure and estimate it's cost.
The court would consider the petition and the
Viewers report, and would generally approve construction of
the bridge if a bridge was indeed necessary. The court order
for construction would determine if a bridge was to be owned
by the county or township upon completion, and would also
determine which entity would pay for the structure.
As a result of these court orders, Mercer County
became owner or partial owner of 248 bridges. There are also
420 state owned bridges. Most of these may have started out
as county or township bridges prior to many of the roads
being taken over by the state. There are also an unknown
number of township or municipal bridges and culverts in the
county.
The oldest bridge the county owns, the Kidd's Mill
covered bridge. It was built in 1868 by the Smith Bridge
Company.
The next oldest bridges the county currently owns
are 20 bridges that were built between 1880 and 1909. These
bridges were typically built by bridge companies that
proliferated in this era. Local masons would erect cut
sandstone abutments and a bridge company would provide and
erect the bridge superstructures. The Penn Bridge company
from Beaver Falls and the Canton Bridge company from Canton,
Ohio provided most of the bridge superstructures. Their
bridges could be ordered from a bridge catalog, much like
the Sears mail order catalog. A typical small bridge would
cost about $300 for the abutments and $200 for the
superstructure, complete in place. Most of the stone
abutment foundations were founded on a log mat.
The bridges built from the 1910's to the end of the
1930's were designed by County Engineers and were built by
local contractors, although some were still built by bridge
companies. Lewis Burnside, Frank Graham, and John Harris are
listed as the engineers for the structures built during this
period.
During the decade of the 1940's, only three
structures were built, and all were located in the city of
Sharon. These were designed by Joe Harris, who was Sharon's
city engineer at the time. The downturn in bridge building
is probably attributed to diverting resources to the war
effort.
From the early 1950's through the early 1970's,
George Emery was County Engineer. Most of the steel I-beam
bridges with open grid decks in the county were built during
this time. The open grid decks were the decks of choice,
since they were relatively new and lightweight.
The county hired consultants Kurtanich Engineers
for a short period in the mid 1970's to design county
bridges. Several box culverts and concrete bridges were
designed by them.
Mark A. Miller, P.E. was County Engineer from 1978 until his retirement in March of 2017. A wide variety of bridge types from steel multi-girders to prestress concrete bridges to culverts and concrete slabs have been built from 1978 to date. A total of 135 bridges were repaired or replaced, and another nine had plans complete and scheduled at the time of Mr. Miller's retirement.