Bridge & drainage dollars sought

Sep. 17—Vigo County Commissioners are seeking to bring back a request before the Vigo County Council for $2 million to tackle 17 water and drainage road projects, plus address two unexpected bridge closings.

That work is part of a $3.2 million funding request using American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) money. The county received $20.76 million.

The county maintains 227 small road structures, which are 4 feet to 191/2 feet long. Additionally the county maintains 200 bridges in the county and in the city of Terre Haute.

Current bridge closures

Four of Vigo County's 200 bridges are now closed. Two of the bridges were closed due to damage, likely from overweight vehicles.

Here are the bridges currently closed:

—North 13th Street bridge over Lost Creek, near Elizabeth Street on the north side of the creek and North 13th Street and Carl Avenue on the south side of the creek. This bridge replacement project started at $1.5 million, but increased to $1.75 million, as concrete abutments were discovered to be too thin to hold steel supports. Project slated for completion by the end of November.

—Two bridges, side by side, on Fruitridge Avenue, spanning Lost Creek. This project is near Beech Street and across from the Zink Distributing Company, formerly Dever Distributing. The deck overlay replacement and surface treatment project was awarded to Indiana-based Force Construction for $841,328. The project started Sept. 12 and has 70 days for completion, with completion slated for Nov. 21. While these bridges are consider closed, traffic is being routed over one bridge while work is done on the opposite bridge.

—A wooden bridge on Greencastle Road, between Rio Grande Avenue and Adams Street, has a damaged main wood support, likely from an overweight vehicle. The county has already ordered materials for repair, and if materials arrive without delay, the bridge could be reopened by the end of October. The project will cost about $50,000. The bridge did not have a weight limit posted when damaged, Robbins said. However, once completed, it will have a rating of 40 tons.

—South Morris Place over Honey Creek, south of West McCombs Drive. A concrete box beam bridge had an arched box beam failure. The county must replace the box beam. The county will seek a company to design a new arched box beam, then have a fabricator made the box beam and then install. No cost estimate and no current date to reopen, but could take three to six months, Robbins said.

The funding comes into more importance as the county has 32 of 200 bridges in need of rehabilitation or replacement over the next 5 to 10 years, costing an estimated $17 million.

Four bridges are currently closed. Two of those are closed for anticipated work, while another two bridges are closed due to unexpected damage.

"We repair bridges and culverts from the same fund, the cumulative bridge fund, so if we have $2 million that we can spend on the immediate need for culverts, we can use that savings to spend on bridges," said Larry Robbins, county engineer/highway director.

The county annually gets about $900,000 from its cumulative bridge fund for rehabilitation/replacement of bridges and smaller structures such as culvert pipes. While the county maintains a five-year bridge plan, Robbins said increases in materials and labor costs now only allow the county to address "maybe one bridge a year, instead of two or three bridges, so that gets us a little behind the eight-ball."

"It all comes together," said Commissioner President Chris Switzer said. "Getting water off the roads will improve the roads, which allows for services to happen such as ambulances and school buses. We can get this done with ARPA money."

Switzer said commissioners have asked for the County Council to readdress its funding request, possibly in a special meeting of the council.

The commissioners' ARPA ask also includes $1.2 million for a new single security entrance to the government building. The funds would cover the cost of a metal detector and bag checking X-ray machine and have a permanent space for a security officer. All other county entrances would be closed.

The Vigo County Council tabled the requests in September, seeking an overall project plan from commissioners for use of the entire $20.76 million.

Council President Aaron Loudermilk said Friday he would favor scheduling a special call of the County Council to address an emergency appropriation for two bridges that are closed due to unforeseen damage. Those bridges could be funded from the county's Economic Development Income Tax, he said.

On the ARPA funds, Loudermilk said the "council is wanting an overall plan for the ARPA funds and what that plan would look like. I am hopeful that we can get that full plan, maybe next week," Loudermilk said.

The council president said if that overall plan is completed, he would also consider the $2 million ARPA request for drainage projects.

"We could open that back up for discussion on the $2 million in ARPA funds for projects that they had listed. That could be discussed again and theoretically acted at a special call if the council had the appetite for that," Loudermilk said.

To help finance bridge work, Robbins said the county is also seeking other funding and has applied for $800,000 in state Community Crossings grant funds for work on two bridges. The county is eligible for $1 million per year under that program. The county early this year received about $200,000.

"The Community Crossings will not be awarded by INDOT (Indiana Department of Transportation) probably until the end of October, but we will not be able to put that to use until next year," Robbins said. "I would not have time to get construction done this year."

The county may also qualify for some state rural grants for bridges outside of the city limits of Terre Haute, Robbins said. The county maintains all bridges, both in the city and county.

Robbins said the two damaged bridges were not anticipated and added to the county's bridge expenses this year.

"We are still working through our bridge schedules, but these things hit us and we are getting hit all at once on these projects, so it is a little bit harder to manage," Robbins said.

Reporter Howard Greninger can be reached 812-231-4204 or howard.greninger@tribstar.com. Follow on Twitter@TribStarHoward.