Starke County Highway Superintendent, Steve Siddall, approached the Starke County Commissioners last night with some good news: The DNR has given them a bit of leeway in the bridge repair situation. IDEM and CORE permitting will not be involved as long as construction stays above the water line, and only the DNR permit will be needed.
“Dan and Ken from Butler, Fairman, and Seufert, went to Indianapolis last Thursday to check on the DNR permit, what they will allow us to do. They’ve gotten good news, so now we’re moving forward with bridge 156, looks like we’re going to take it out of federal funding and do it in-house, which will speed it up tremendously. We should have this bridge, I’m hoping, by the end of the fall be open,” said Siddall.
However, the Commissioners did need to select the type of bridge to use and what bridge design company to use, and Siddall recommended Debco. Debby Bucher with Debco was present to give a brief presentation. The Commissioners leaned toward the selection of a concrete box beam bridge, with an estimated cost of $116,000, but there was a concern regarding the abutments being able to handle the extra weight.
A motion passed to have a study done on the abutments to determine whether or not they can support the weight, with the cost of the examination to not exceed $28,000.
