There are 900-plus miles of roads in Audrain County. Brian Haeffner has seen just about all of the miles.

Haeffner, county engineer who works in the Audrain County Road and Bridge Department, discussed his department’s activities, including the care of the roads and bridges.

Brixton Goerne, a senior at Mexico High School, was an intern who took some engineering classes through the Hart Career Center and is interested in being an engineer. 

“County Road and Bridge has hired an intern for the last two summers, so this is the third year,” Haeffner said one day this summer, adding that part of the goal is Goerne to learn about the field of engineering, what the road and bridge department does and how he can assist the department. One of his duties was to check out culverts on gravel roads.

Haeffner described how the road system is laid out in the county, including the common number one district and four special road districts.

The Road and Bridge website explained it is “responsible for bridge replacement and maintenance on all county bridges. County bridges are replaced according to a five-year plan developed when the Bridge Sales Tax was approved in April 2004. Each year since then, the department has worked in different county areas.”

The website explained the Audrain County Road District is made up of five different road districts: #1 Road District, #13 Road District, Vandalia Special Road District, Laddonia-Farber Special Road District and the Saling #2 Special Road District.

“Although Audrain County #1 Road District is responsible for most of the roads, the other districts are responsible for the maintenance of their assigned roads,” the website stated.

Haeffner said the county has two Bridge Replacement Off System projects, with one nearing completion design and one that the county has just started with a consultant engineer to design. Those projects are north of Laddonia and east of Highway 19. BRO projects are from a federally funded program, with the federal funding generally coming in at 80% and the local match being 20%. The county maintains bridges on all county roads, while the city of Mexico maintains bridges on city streets and MoDOT maintains bridges on MoDOT maintained routes, Haeffner said.

He discussed the work of his department eash day, and he said the bridge project in completion design would have bid opening this fall and construction would begin next year, and the other project is probably about a year behind. Generally speaking, the projects take two to three years to complete, from initial design through construction. Construction can take two to three months for small bridges.

MoDOT officials inspect every bridge in Missouri, and those are anything that span 20 feet or longer, and those inspections are performed every two years at minimum, Haeffner said. 

“And if bridges are in very poor condition, then they inspect them more often,” he said. 

Haeffner discussed how the department maintains projects, including those in the small structure bridge program, and how, on a daily basis, he oversees the small structure program. There are about 640 small structures in the county, Haeffner said, and he said later in an email that small structures are those with a span along the road between 4 feet and 20 feet, with 20 feet or longer being a bridge by federal standards. T.C. Meyer, road and bridge supervisor, discussed how the department is divided up into six different areas, including six different road grater operators, and crews have various responsibilities on roadways, such as drainage and cutting brush. 

Usually, there’s always something for crews to work on, and when a resident calls about a problem, Meyer will investigate to see what if anything needs to be conducted and how it will be prioritized. 

The small structures program budget runs about $900,000 a year and is funded by a separate sales tax from the road and bridge budget.

“We’re currently spending a little bit more than that, because we’ve had a balance in that fund, but there’s about $1 million a year that we’re spending on small structures,” Haeffner said. The estimated road and bridge budget for 2025 is around $3.8 million.