CROWN POINT | Taxpayers are being asked to foot a higher bill for added bridge safety inspections while the county struggles to keep up with reviews of the hundreds of road bridges for which it already is responsible, Lake commissioners complained Wednesday.

The county may have to pay thousands of additional dollars to have an Indianapolis-based engineering firm examine not only 160 bridges the county highway department now maintains but also another 14 bridges that previously were the responsibility of cities, towns and at least one private steel mill.

Lake County Highway Superintendent Marcus Malczewski said the state is mandating the county take on the extra responsibility.

Commissioner Fran DuPey, D-Hammond, criticized the unfunded mandate.

"Let's get some cost sharing," said DuPey, who suggested postponing the additional inspections until funding appears.

Commissioner Roosevelt Allen, D-Gary, complained that state officials and lobbyists for heavy industry have helped reduce industrial taxes, but the state wants to give local government more work.

But Malczewski noted the cost of inspection is small compared to the cost of replacing road bridges that collapse for lack of attention. "We could turn our backs, but what if we have a disaster?"

Commissioners are set to vote next week on whether to approve a $262,520 addition to a four-year contract with American Structurepoint Inc., of Indianapolis. The federal government pays 80 percent of that cost to the engineering firm for bridge inspection, Malczewski said.

Michael Wenning, department manager for the bridge inspection service of American Structurepoint, said the job of bridge inspections now overwhelms most county highway departments.

He said federal regulations require inspectors to have a high degree of experience and training in new techniques meant to standardize the rating of cracks found in metal and stone bridge foundations and into the degree of danger they present the public.

A Times analysis of federal inspection records in the summer revealed most of the more than 750 bridges in Lake and Porter counties meet national safety standards, but a third still need some repair or are nearing the end of useful life spans.

Malczewski said federal bridge safety standards were being stiffened even before the Aug. 1 Mississippi River bridge collapse in Minneapolis that left 13 dead and about 100 injured, but that accident has given the new rules added impetus.