As Department of Public Works crews kick off road construction season in Indianapolis, officials also are taking an opportunity to highlight the work planned for bridges.
The collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore after a container ship ran into it has brought attention to the safety of bridges here.
No, ships don’t navigate the White River through the city, but Marion County does contain several bridges that need attention.
“Maintaining our bridges is, of course, a matter of public safety,” said Brandon Herget, the city’s public works director. “DPW manages 536 structures throughout the entire city of Indianapolis, and aims to provide major improvements on about 10 structures per year.”
[Indy’s DPW are also orchestrating the two-way street conversions.]
Federal Highway Administration data from 2023 show that 46 bridges in Marion County are rated as “poor,” meaning that the bridge received a low rating for any of the four sections of the bridge: the deck, superstructure, substructure or culverts. Fourteen of the 46 are the state Department of Transportation’s responsibility.
A poor rating serves as a warning for officials to begin prioritizing the bridge for future funding and repairs. Bridges found to be unsafe are immediately closed to traffic.
Within the last two years, city officials have rehabilitated nine of the bridges rated as poor, including the 16th Street Bridge over Little Eagle Creek.
This construction season, the department will work on 17 new and ongoing bridge projects, including one of the lowest-rated. The 30th Street Bridge was rated as poor by the Federal Highway Administration, according to federal data compiled by IndyStar.
Inspectors found high levels of chloride in the bridge’s arch span, which indicates corrosion throughout the bridge. It was chosen for a $17 million rehabilitation in 2021. Construction started in 2022 and is expected to be completed later this year.
Westside bridges
In addition to repairing one of the lowest-rated bridges in the county, crews also are building new bridges.
That includes construction of the Henry Street Bridge, which will connect the area around the new Elanco Animal Health Inc. headquarters to downtown.
The department is in the early steps of building the 16 Tech Innovation Bridge, which would connect the 16 Tech Innovation District to the research and medical corridor downtown.
Crews also will rehabilitate other bridges on the west side, including the West Washington Street Bridge over Little Eagle Creek, which will involve the removal and replacement of pavement, new sidewalks and a new railing for the bridge.
Other westside projects include rehabilitation of the bridges at 38th Street over Dry Run Creek and 34th Street over Falcon Creek.
How does DPW track bridge conditions?
According to Herget, engineers conduct an inspection of each bridge every two years, using federal inspection standards to check for things like the health of the deck, girders, beams, frames and other parts that vary depending on how and where the bridge was built.
[They’re also tracking drivers who obey the no-turn-on-red signs.]
Inspectors also consider other factors beyond the bridge itself, such as the velocity of water running along the bridge substructure and the erosion of banks and beds of the waterways the bridges are built to cross.
DPW then makes funding decisions based on those inspections and other factors, such as funding availability.
For example, the 16th Street Bridge over the White River was selected for its own $17 million rehabilitation. The bridge was rated as “fair,” but it faces serious issues with its deck.
“The rehabilitation’s been a longtime coming,” Herget said. “A gentleman that works for DPW told me that his entire 11 years on the job with us he’s been filling potholes on this bridge.”
The project will focus on the bridge’s substructure this year, and crews will begin working on the deck in 2025.
What’s next
All the westside projects are currently underway. Work on the 16th Street Bridge will not affect traffic in 2024, as most of the work will focus on the substructure.
More information about which projects DPW will be working to address this year and in the future can be found on its website.
Mirror Indy reporter Enrique Saenz covers west Indianapolis. Contact him at 317-983-4203 or enrique.saenz@mirrorindy.org. Follow him on X @heyEnriqueSaenz.