Local News
Bridge relocation design under way
Engineers have started the design on a federally-funded project to update the 36-year-old bridge over Ford Road just south of County Road 800 with a 68-year-old iron-truss bridge that now spans the Shelbyville River on State Road 44.
The Boone County Council approved last month spending $250,000 for a new engineering study. Jim Barker of J.A. Barker Engineering Inc. was commissioned for the project and said, after studying the location, that such a move is possible. Barker will present the design to the Indiana Department of Transportation, which must approve the project.
The Boone County Commissioners signed an agreement with INDOT Monday, Aug. 4, promising to abide by state rules if the bridge is installed. Boone County Commissioner Marc Applegate presented the bridge replacement idea at the July 8 county council meeting.
“I’m pretty excited about this bridge,” he said. “It’s going to be a good fit for the area.”
Residents have opposed alterations to the bridge site for more than a decade, fearing damage to the “tunnel of trees” running along 96th Street and Ford Road south of the bridge. Barker said the truss bridge would fit exactly where the current bridge rests, and only a few trees would be removed.
“We will try to hold the footprint of the project to a reasonable minimum,” Barker said of the project’s potential impact on plantlife.
Local resident Cindy Lamberjack is pleased with this project, and wants to see it approved by INDOT.
“It’s great. The commissioners have done a great job with this one,” she said.
INDOT plans to upgrade a 10-mile stretch on S.R. 44, and will replace the historic iron bridge in Shelbyville in the process. Barker said the bridge is in disrepair and will soon be unfit for the heavy traffic on S.R. 44. The bridge would be repaired and rebuilt when placed on Ford Road. It now carries 60-mph traffic with two 10-foot wide lanes and two-foot shoulders. The bridge’s railings and guardrails would be replaced to meet current standards.
Boone County officials are not only concerned with the stability of the bridge, but are also concerned with the safety of the 96th Street corner and the C.R. 800 intersection. Barker said when there is heavy traffic flow northbound on Ford Road drivers turning left onto C.R. 800 back up traffic around the corner and onto 96th Street.
“We have to improve traffic flow and sight distance,” Barker said. “Our project will fix both of those problems.”
He wants to move the C.R. 800 intersection with Ford Road further north to back it away from the 90-degree turn at 96th Street. Such a move would not affect the “tunnel of trees.”
Barker expects to present INDOT with his design as early as February 2009. The department will hear no fewer than three presentations for any plan, and would also hold a public hearing before granting approval.
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