Commissioners updated on historic Center Street bridge project in Bremen

Lauri Johnson from DLZ out of South Bend gave the Marshall County Commissioners a status report on bridge # 231, the Center Street Bridge in Bremen. 

During the meeting, Johnson said the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) has been working with others to consider a change in the reclassification of the bridge project from non-select to select.  The change likely means that the project will become a rehabilitation project instead of a replacement project. 

Johnson informed the commissioners that, with the new information, a Transportation Technical Advisory Committee (TTAC) meeting was held last week with the Michiana Area Council of Governments (MACOG). The change will extend the timeline for bidding on the project into next year.  A memo will be sent to INDOT explaining the delay.

The project currently has a letting day of August 2027, but she expects it to be revised and pushed out further because of the change in classification.

Commissioner Stan Klotz asked, “This change will make the project cheaper?”

Johnson’s reply was, “Unfortunately, probably not.” 

Commissioner Jesse Bohannon asked Johnson, “How does a change like this affect overall costs for the county?”

There was an original cost analysis of rehabilitation versus replacement.  The Benefit Cost Allowances favored replacement, so DLZ will review that report to determine if any additional investigations are necessary, particularly in the area surrounding the bridge, where a basement wall shares a wing-wall with the bridge.  Johnson noted that extending the project duration increases the cost because material and man-hour pricing will rise with inflation, along with the additional design costs required by the change.

The Bremen Bridge Project is federally funded, so Bohannon asked what the impact on the county’s matching funds would be, and Johnson said they are recalculating the cost with the change and will submit it to INDOT with the hope that any increase would still be split 80/20 between the state funds from the federal government and the local matching funds. 

Johnson’s comment at the end of the conversation was, “We (DLZ) are very disappointed.”