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Without federal funding, this bridge on Andrew County Route 272 likely would not have been built last year.

The pony truss bridge stretches about 130 feet over the Middle Fork of the Grand River, a mile or so north of Gentry, Mo. On a gravel road, its daily traffic count hits double digits, far short of triple digits.

The span has borne farm trucks and school buses and business vehicles for nearly 90 years. Its replacement, the construction of which will start in early November, will likewise serve residents of the rural area.

But the new structure would not become reality without the Off-System Bridge program, federal outlays for spans owned by local governments. Members of Congress, crafting the next version of the federal Highway Bill, now have eyes on cutting the expenditure.

Northwest Missouri Congressman Sam Graves has introduced a resolution in the U.S. House looking to preserve the program, known as BRO in governmental shorthand. A member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Mr. Graves said he would also work to include the program in the broader Highway Bill reauthorization.

“Counties all over the country have been pretty dependent on this program,” the Tarkio Republican said Thursday in a call from Washington.

“Some of our counties have been really innovative in the way they have used this, and they’ve got a lot of bridges replaced all over Northwest Missouri.

Current law requires that 15 percent of money from the Federal Bridge Program — about $645 million this year — go for off-system spans. Missouri has nearly 14,000 county-owned bridges of at least 20 feet in length.

The Missouri Department of Transportation has $21.4 million in program funding in its Fiscal 2009 budget. For the department’s District 1, which covers 12 counties in the northwestern corner of the state, the BRO money approaches $3.5 million for the year.

In Gentry County, where the Middle Fork bridge went to bid two weeks ago, budget constraints would not allow bridge replacement without the federal help. Larry Wilson, an associate commission in Gentry County, said the county budget allows for $220,000 in materials and $140,000 for payroll.

For the BRO-assisted Middle Fork bridge, the bid came in at $613,000.

“We’d basically have to do nothing for two years to even come close to building a project like that,” he said.

Presiding Commissioner Rod Dollars called the bridge budget hard-pressed even with the federal program. “We just can’t afford to put a lot of them in,” he said.

In Andrew County, Presiding Commissioner Larry L. Atkins called the off-system program “a very good tool for small counties” but said funding has been declining in recent times.

“We’re just asking Congress to put the funding like it was a couple of years ago,” Mr. Atkins said. “Rural people out here in the counties need some roads too, and some decent bridges.”

Ken Newton can be reached

at kenn@npgco.com.