River flooding slows progress on Randolph Street Bridge replacement project

Thursday, April 10, 2025 at 3:00 AM

By Kathy Bottorff

The Randolph Street Bridge replacement project, #232 in Plymouth, has slowed due to river flooding caused by storms that rolled through Marshall County on March 30 and April 2.

Highway Superintendent Jason Peters said, “River flooding is significant, and work in the river is paused until levels can go down. LaPorte Construction worked on building up the crane pad and moving the crane into location for next week’s work.

Peters told the commissioner he met with Mayor Listenberger and Street Superintendent Jim Marquardt to discuss the new preliminary and intermediate completion dates approved by the commissioners. The city was happy with the preliminary completion date of August 22, five days before the Blueberry Festival. Peters said the news dates were sent to INDOT and were also approved.

The Highway Superintendent said this week LaPorte Construction.

Plans to change their schedule to adjust to the flooding. Peters said they would move the crane into position and drive the piling for bent #1 since it is well above the river's water level. They will get the end bent pile driven, cut to length, and filled with concrete to finish sheeting and piling for pier #2 to keep progress moving forward.

The Highway Superintendent stated that he and Brandon from USI reviewed the bid documents for Bridge #1 on Ule Trail. Everything was submitted correctly, and he requested that the commissioners award the contract to LaPorte Construction for $706,269.81. The bid was noted to be about $100,000 less than the engineer’s estimate. The commissioners approved the bid.