The Indiana Department of Transportation has again delayed the start of the State Road 65 bridge project over I-64 in northern Vanderburgh County.
State Road 64 is now expected to be closed at the bridge starting the evening of Monday January 22.
This is the third delay, just announced Thursday morning, the day the project was expected to finally start.
The closures will be at night only, during the hours of 7 pm and 6 am, but temperatures are currently still too low.
Gary Brian is public relations director for INDOT Southwest.
“The folks who are doing this project have said that those cold, cold temperatures would affect their equipment,” he said. “So basically, we've had to push that back … when temperatures are warming up. So when those overnight closures happen, we will be routing traffic onto the on ramps and off ramps.”
While crews disassemble the bridge on State Road 65, drivers will utilize on and off-ramps to bypass the road closure. This part of the project will take about two weeks.
Brian said the bridge was built in the 1960s, and was already rehabilitated once in the 1980s.
“This particular bridge has just basically got to the point where it's going to cost a lot more to maintain it, to fix it, to patch it, to do all the things that it needs than it is to just basically build a new bridge. So that's, that's what we're doing — completely removing and replacing.”
It will cost $4 million dollars and take until July to finish, assuming weather is conducive to construction.
Brian says they’re working at night to minimize the effect on traffic.
Support independent journalism today. You rely on WNIN to stay informed, and we depend on you to make our work possible. Give to grow our local reporting today. Donate now