More than $10.9 million work is needed on Vigo County bridges

TERRE HAUTE - One in nine Indiana bridges is structurally deficient and an additional 10.8 percent are considered functionally obsolete, according to statistics from the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Parke County - at 35.3 percent - had the highest percentage among Indiana counties with bridges deemed "structurally deficient," while Vigo County had 11.5 percent, according to an Associated Press analysis of 2006 data from the Federal Highway Administration.

The Indiana Department of Transportation examined 30 state bridges in Parke County, of which three are structurally deficient, said Debbie Calder, spokeswoman for the Indiana Department of Transportation's Crawfordsville District that includes Vigo and Parke counties.

Parke County Commissioner Jim Meece was aware of the number of bridges that were determined as deficient. Many of the concrete bridges in the county were created more than half a century ago, he said. He was unsure if the county's famous covered bridges were among those on the "structurally deficient" list.

He added that the bridges are reviewed every two years.

"We've replaced several bridges due to the reports we've gotten by the engineers," but the county has never had any that needed to be shut down immediately, Meece said.

According to a 2006 Statewide Bridge Sufficiency Rating Report from the Indiana Local Technical Assistance Program, Parke County had more than $11.9 million in needed bridge work, along with $4.6 million in roadway work.

In all, more than $20.5 million in bridge projects is needed in Parke County, according to the LTAP report.

Vigo County, in that report, had $7.4 million in bridge work and $1.4 million in roadway work, with $10.9 million in projects needed.

Vigo County inspects bridges every two years, said Paul Mason, president of the county Board of Commissioners. The county also inspects culverts, something not required by the state, but which is done for safety, Mason said. Culverts are large pipes that go under a road, over which cars and trucks travel.

The county does the bi-annual bridge inspections to qualify faster for federal funds, which usually pay 80 percent of the cost of a bridge replacement, Mason said.

As an example, the county next year intends to build a new bridge in Otter Creek on Hasselburger Avenue, about three-fifths of a mile east of North 13th Street. That bridge was first built in 1919 and reconstructed in 1973. The bridge's underside needs much repair.

The county this year already is replacing a bridge on Fort Harrison Road, about one-tenth of a mile west of 13th Street. It is actually two bridges being replaced because the former bridges, built in 1964 and 1977, had severe scaling and heavy rust, according to the county's 2004 bridge report by Garrar, Garvey & Associates, an Indianapolis engineering firm.

Bridge conditions are based on a sufficiency rating used by the Federal Highway Administration. Anything rated at 80 percent or higher is good.

Under 80, a county can receive federal funds for rehabilitation work. Under 50, a county can receive funds to replace a bridge, said John Haddock, an associate professor of engineering at Purdue University and director of the Indiana LTAP.

The Indiana LTAP is a program of the Federal Highway Administration which provides information to counties on bridges.

Haddock said bridge repair varies from county to county, "and it typically comes down to really a funding issue. County governments are always trying to do more with less."

Haddock said the term "deficient" indicates a bridge is either structurally deficient or functionally obsolete. A structurally deficient bridge is closed or restricted to light-weight vehicles because of deteriorated structural components.

A functionally obsolete bridge is one that cannot service the volume or type of traffic using it. "An example is a bridge may be functionally obsolete because a lot of farmers want to use it, but it is not wide enough to handle some farm equipment used today," Haddock said. "It would not be because it could not handle the load."

"My sense is that I wouldn't be afraid to drive across bridges in Indiana in the counties," Haddock said. "Those that do have structural problems that can't handle a load are handled by signage."

"I think counties are cognizant of the fact they need to keep repair and maintenance of bridges. The nation's infrastructure is aging ... not just in Indiana," he said.

Andy Dietrick, INDOT spokesman, said Indiana has about 18,300 bridges, of which about 12,500 are county bridges. Indiana has direct responsibility for inspection and maintenance of about 5,700 bridges in the state.

"Based on the sufficiency rating used by the Federal Highway Administration, on average, Indiana's bridges are at 90 percent," Dietrick said.

"Overall, Indiana's bridges are in pretty good shape, but that doesn't mean we don't have some work to do," he said. "About 4 percent of the state's bridges have been designated as structurally deficient, an engineering term which doesn't talk about the safety of the bridge, but it does indicate things that need to be looked at."

There are also about 559 bridges that are functionally obsolete, he said.

"A lot of the bridges in the Indiana inventory that are functionally obsolete are that way because of weight restrictions that have to be placed on them," Dietrick said.

Tribune Star Reporter Austin Areco and The Associated Press contributed this report.