MARSHALL — It’s not Marshall’s most high-traffic bridge. It’s not very old, either. But the bridge connecting Madrid Street to the undeveloped east side of the Marshall airport property is showing some concrete damage. The city is turning to the bridge’s original designers to look for solutions.

Members of the Marshall City Council approved up to $6,500 for engineering firm TKDA to inspect the bridge and draft repair plans. Marshall City Engineer Jason Anderson said spalling concrete on part of the bridge railing wasn’t a safety hazard, but he wanted to make sure the problem was looked at sooner rather than later.

“We don’t want to get into a fix down the road that is much more expensive than the fix today,” Anderson said.

The Madrid Street bridge was completed in 2011 as a way to open the east side of the airport property up for future development. In 2014, the site was looked at for a potential expansion for Action Manufacturing, but the FAA said only aviation-related development would be allowed on the property. On the airport side of the bridge, Madrid Street currently ends in a circular drive.

Anderson said a recent city bridge inspection noticed spalling on the concrete on the bridge’s south railing. He didn’t have an exact source, but the damage could possibly have been caused by water getting into the concrete structure, where the freeze-thaw cycle then caused areas of concrete to flake off.

TKDA was proposing a maximum cost of $6,500 to inspect the bridge and prepare plans to repair it, and an $8,200 cost for the construction phase of repairs. Anderson said the city was only planning on moving forward with the inspection and plans at this point.

While the Madrid Street bridge project has been referred to as a “bridge to nowhere” in the Marshall community, Marshall City Administrator Sharon Hanson said there is some potential for private development of a hangar at Airpark East.

“It may be a long shot, but it is a potential,” she said.

Council member Steven Meister said that was a reason he would vote for the repair plans.

“It may be a long shot, but it’s a zero shot if there’s not a bridge there,” he said.

Council member Glenn Bayerkohler asked Anderson if the damage was a safety concern, and if the concrete repairs could wait.

“This is not a well traveled bridge,” he said.

“The bridge is still a good bridge,” but the spalling was a new change, Anderson said. “We thought it would be prudent to do the review now.”

Council member Russ Labat asked if the city had any legal recourse for the concrete damage.

“The bridge is less than 15 years old, and we’re having trouble with it,” he said. “Are we stuck with what we have?”

“We at least need to know what’s going on,” said council member John DeCramer. A motion to approve up to $6,500 for TKDA to inspect the bridge and come up with repair plans passed 6-1, with Labat casting the vote against.