Commissioners updated on emergency closing of Randolph Street Bridge

Tuesday, October 22, 2024 at 4:00 AM

By Kathy Bottorff

The Randolph Street bridge from Randolph Street into Centennial Park was closed due to a bridge inspection last Friday. During the County Commissioner’s meeting on Monday, Highway Superintendent Jason Peters and a representative from USI Consulting discussed the issues.

The bridge is scheduled for replacement after the Blueberry Festival 2025 and has been on the county’s watch list. It’s been inspected every two years due to its condition and during the inspection last week they found one severely corroded pile and the south bridge abutment wall leaning too far out of plane for the engineers to be comfortable with.

Repairs could be considered but with the project already out to bid repairs would be costly. A “jumper bridge” could be rented for about $33,000 a month but the commissioners want to see if the project can be moved up 11 months.

LaPorte Construction had the lowest bid at $3.12 million and the commissioners signed the award of bid letter to INDOT. Peters told the commissioners, that after COVID the cost of this bridge project increased by about $1 million. The most recent engineer’s estimate was nearly $4 million so when the low bid came in at $3.12 million it was about 6% over the original bid and 29% less than the engineer's estimate.

Commissioner Overmyer said declaring an emergency allows the county to move quicker with INDOT and through all the pre-construction stuff. It was noted that the construction company may add a fee for moving the project up by 11 months but the county will have to wait and see how LaPorte Construction wants to handle the emergency.

The commissioners asked County Attorney Jim Clevenger to create a resolution declaring Bridge #232, the Randolph Street Bridge emergency closure due to safety reasons with a preference to expedite the replacement project. The commissioners unanimously approved the request.