One of Bartholomew County’s five bridges determined to be in most need of repairs will be upgraded this year.
Bridge 111, located southeast of Columbus on South Gladstone Avenue over Clifty Creek, will receive a new overlay on its concrete deck, as well as joint repairs, county highway engineer Danny Hollander said.
DLZ Indiana, an engineering and design firm, was hired last November to design the new concrete overlay. But consultants advised a few years ago that repairs will be more costly and time-consuming than on conventional bridges. That’s because the river crossing is built at a curve over the river and has a slight bank on the deck.
The bridge was one of the first in the county to be inspected with a thermal scan, which provides engineers a view below the deck surface that shows problems not visible to the naked eye. The cost of a thermal scan is about $1,000.
Bids will be opened by the Bartholomew County Commissioners on March 4. However, construction will not get underway until after consistent warm temperatures arrives, Hollander said. The project is expected to take six weeks to two months to complete, he said.
With several companies and an industrial park off South Gladstone to the north, and an indirect link to the Southern Crossing to the south, traffic over the bridge has increased in recent years. After a contractor is hired, a determination will be made on whether the structure will have to be partially or completely closed.
In 2002, United Consulting Engineers of Indianapolis ranked Bridge 11 among the top five bridges in Bartholomew County in need of rehabilitation. Another bridge on the list, located along East 25th Street over Clifty Creek, was upgraded last year.
Other bridges on the list are located on County Road 900N over Flatrock River; County Road 600S over Sand Creek and County Road 500S over Little Sand Creek.
