Bartholomew County officials have reopened County Road 800S west of Azalia after repairs to a 26-foot-long bridge damaged by flooding.
The county road, one of two main crossings between U.S. 31 and State Road 11, had been closed for seven weeks, but reopened Monday afternoon, said county highway engineer Danny Hollander.
In early April, county officials learned water had gotten under the pavement, causing the ground to weaken and erode, Hollander said. The damage was found at the edge of the bridge that spans a flooding overflow area west of the big bridge that crosses East Fork White River, he said.
The discovery was made when a county highway worker using a snow plow to clean flooding debris suddenly sank into the core of the bridge abutment by about a foot, Hollander said.
But high water was only one of the problems that caused the April 7 emergency closing for the bridge, which carries about 2,000 vehicles a day, Hollander said.
As repairs began, county officials learned the bridge construction from the late 1970s was faulty.
Instead of properly grounding a rigid frame used to support beams and girders to embankments, workers had simply laid the end bents, which support beams and girders, on to the old roadway, commissioner Rick Flohr said earlier this month.
County officials declared an emergency situation to finish the bridge repairs more quickly. If an emergency situation had not been declared — and the repairs delayed to go through a normal bidding process — some Sandcreek Township farmers would have been forced to drive about eight miles out of their way to do their spring planting, commissioner Carl Lienhoop said earlier.
Although all the bills have not been calculated, Hollander says weekly receipts submitted by Milestone Contractors, which performed the emergency work, are near the $150,000 estimate for the work.
About three miles to the north, the other road that links the two major highways called Southern Crossing has deteriorated much faster than expected, Hollander said.
The results of tests done on dozens of core samples shows most of the damage was confined to the top of the 10-inches of asphalt.
Although occasional flooding may be a factor, it’s likely the high traffic volume of 7,600 vehicles a day, which includes many heavy trucks, that has caused Southern Crossing to fall apart so quickly, Hollander said.
Crews may need to replace the top 2- to 4-inches of roadway, instead of tearing up all the asphalt to make foundation repairs, Hollander said.
The cost of repaving the western portion of Southern Crossing, from State Road 11 to County Road 250E, is estimated at $228,600.
That work is expected to be done later this year.
