Born in tragedy and recently found to be gravely weakened, the Cline Avenue bridge over the Indiana Harbor and Ship Canal will be permanently closed and demolished, a state transportation official announced Monday.
Another month of inspections and consultations with engineers has revealed significant problems in every component of the span, which was closed temporarily Nov. 13, according to Bob Zier, chief of staff to Indiana Department of Transportation Commissioner Michael Reed.
Now, businesses, local government and the public will be invited to come up with ideas for "further construction" to get goods to steel mills, patrons to casinos and facilitate traffic around Cline Avenue, Zier said.
"That may include the rebuilding of portions of Cline Avenue, but it would not include the rebuilding of the Cline Avenue bridges as we have them today," Zier said.
INDOT has not yet planned or scheduled the demolition of the span.
The portion of Cline Avenue from the Borman Expressway to Michigan Avenue will remain open, Zier said.
INDOT plans to meet with local business and government leaders in February to gather input, Zier said. There will also be a public hearing.
In the short term, INDOT will move forward with all local improvement projects for streets that are bearing the brunt of the closure, Zier said. It also plans to come up with new ones such as turn-off lanes and additional traffic lights where needed.
Local businesses, government officials and organizations were briefed by Zier on conference calls that went on for most of Monday.
The 1.25-mile bridge is part of a key industrial artery that leads to steel mills along Lake Michigan and the Majestic Star Casinos, in Gary, and Ameristar Casino, in East Chicago.
Lakeshore Chamber of Commerce Executive Director David Ryan said his organization was told in a conference call with Zier that the arching bridge will not be re-opened, repaired or replaced.
Ryan said Zier said the 30,000 vehicles per day using the elevated highway would not justify the expense of the replacement. In the 1980s, up to 80,000 vehicles per day used Cline Avenue.
"But to not do anything with it at all?" Ryan said. "I mean, 30,000 cars is 30,000 cars. And the heavy truck traffic is the other use -- all the steel rolling out of there."
The average bridge in Lake and Porter counties carries about 17,000 vehicles per day, according to 2008 federal bridge inventory data. The most heavily traveled bridge in the two counties is on Interstate 80/94, and it gets 200,000 vehicles per day.
Three days after the Cline Avenue bridge was closed, INDOT released a draft four-year transportation plan that called for spending $90 million on replacing the superstructure of the bridge, which is basically everything above the massive upright piers that hold it up. That was slated to take place in 2012.
Zier said that plan has been scratched.
INDOT wants to replace it with something that will have a broader impact on economic development in the region. But the plan could possibly still include a bridge over the Indiana Harbor and Ship Canal.
He said the state's budget shortfall had nothing to do with the decision to rethink the $90 million project.
"We have this money due to the Major Moves program and leasing of the Toll Road," Zier said, referring to the $3.8 billion payment the state received in 2006 from leasing the Indiana Toll Road to private investors.
INDOT's announcement comes one week after Gov. Mitch Daniels said he would accelerate the bridge's scheduled 2012 replacement with money available from his Major Moves highway program.
Contacted just after the INDOT announcement Monday, the governor's spokeswoman, Jane Jankowski, said Daniels agreed with INDOT's plan to get input from local stakeholders.
"I think all he said last week was, that what he wanted to see done, was that this be expedited," Jankowksi said. "And so, INDOT is now doing that.
"They're meeting with folks as quickly as they can, and whatever the ultimate decision is, they plan to move that forward quickly. So I think everybody's on the same page here: to consult locally, find out what the best plan is to move forward, and make that call by the end of February."
Certain intersections and streets will receive priority in getting improvements in the short term, Zier said.
Those include Dickey Road at the railroad crossing; Riley Road and 129th Street; 129th Street at Indianapolis Boulevard, Michigan Avenue at Dickey Road; and U.S. 12 and Cline Avenue ramps that connect with ArcelorMittal.
Current detours will remain in place. Westbound Cline Avenue traffic will continue to take U.S. 12 west to Indianapolis Boulevard, then west to southbound Calumet Avenue. Eastbound traffic will continue to take northbound Calumet Avenue to Indianapolis Boulevard, then east to U.S. 12 and back to Cline Avenue.
The bridge has a tragic history. As it was being built in 1982 a portion collapsed, killing 14 construction workers and injuring 16 others.
The bridge was closed in November, one week after the state received a report from an engineering firm telling INDOT to ban trucks greater than 18 tons and not to allow any vehicles on the shoulders of the elevated roadway.
The Cline Avenue bridge is what is known as a post-tensioned, concrete box girder bridge. Its poured-in-place girders are supported by thick cables stretched through ductwork within the concrete.
Concerns about such bridges were raised nine years ago when it was discovered cables had come apart in three major bridges in Florida due to corrosion.
On Nov. 13, INDOT closed the Cline Avenue bridge as a precaution, based on the report's findings.
Subsequent inspections have shown even more problems, Zier said.
"We found issues with the cables, we found issues with the concrete, we found issues with the beams and where they contact with the support piers," he said.
By Keith Benman keith.benman@nwi.com, (219) 933-3326 Posted: Tuesday, December 29, 2009 12:10 am
