County Commissioners voted to approve an agreement with the Montana Department of Transportation for the development of a replacement Sheep Creek Bridge.

The agreement allows the county to use state funds for MDT to engineer, design and install a new bridge at no cost to the county, according to county staff.

The 2023 Legislature made funds available for the maintenance of county roads and the reconstruction and repair of local roads and bridges and the Sheep Creek Bridge is eligible for those funds.

County nearing completion of Sheep Creek Bridge repairs

Les Payne, county public works director, said that the county was approached by MDT about the Sheep Creek Bridge’s January 2023 inspection, during which is scored lowest of all county bridges due to the poor structure and age of the bridge.

The bridge failed an inspection in February 2024 and was closed for about two months.

Commissioners approved an agreement with MDT during their March 26 meeting for up to $65,000 of the same state funds to hire a firm to engineer and design temporary repairs to make the bridge safe for traffic and pass an MDT inspection, as well as purchase the needed materials, according to the county public works department.

The bridge reopened on April 18.

County working to repair damaged Sheep Creek Bridge

The damage was likely caused by overweight loads traveling over the bridge, according to county public works.

The closure blocked several families who live beyond the bridge from being able to travel in or out and limits access to those residents by emergency personnel, according to county public works.

The agreement approved during the April 23 commission meeting is separate and in addition to the funding the county received to repair the bridge, Payne told commissioners.

Payne said the repairs should hold until the bridge can be replaced in 2025 or 2026.

Payne told commissioners that he submitted paperwork to MDT for reimbursement for the bridge repairs totaling about $67,000. MDT will reimburse $65,000 of that.

Payne said they didn’t yet have an estimate for what a new bridge would cost, nor have they determined what went over the bridge to cause the damage.