182 COUNTY COMMISSIONERS. [ART. 28.

BRIDGES.

47. All applications for building and repairing bridges shall be
made by petition to the county commissioners.

48. When any person intends to apply for building or repairing
any bridge, he shall give notice in the same manner, and for the
same length of time prescribed for applications for opening roads,
and the county commissioners when they have heard the reasons
and evidences for and against the application, shall determine
the case as in their judgment will best promote the public con-
venience.

49. Whenever the county commissioners shall have determined
to build or repair a bridge, they shall, at their usual time for
levying taxes, levy on the assessable property of the county, a
sum sufficient to pay for the bridge and its embankments and
abutments.

50. All bridges shall be built or repaired by contract, and the
county commissioners shall advertise in one or more newspapers,
and if there be no newspaper published in the county, or counties,
then by such public notice as they shall deem most advisable,
setting forth the place where said bridge is to be built or re-
paired, with full specifications of the plan and materials, and that
sealed proposals for building or repairing said bridge will be
received until a day named in the advertisement.

51. On the day named in such advertisement the proposals
shall be opened, and the contract awarded to the lowest bidder,
who in the opinion of the county commissioners shall be qualified
to build or repair the bridge; and the contractor shall be required
to enter into bonds with approved security, in double the amount
of the contract, conditioned for the faithful performance of the
contract.

52. When a contractor shall notify the county commissioners
that the bridge is finished, the county commissioners shall inspect
the work, and if in their judgment it has been constructed ac-
cording to the contract and specification, they shall take the same
from the hands of the contractor, and open it for public travel,
and then and not before, the contractor shall be entitled to receive
the last instalment due thereon.