No state funding available for bridge preservation

Bridge 109 is one of two bridges on West Walnut Street Road in Madison Township that will not receive federal funding for rehabilitation due to the current state of inflated construction prices.

Banner Graphic/JARED JERNAGAN

Two more local bridge preservation projects fell victim to inflated construction costs this week.

Putnam County had applied for bridge preservation grants for Bridge 109 and Bridge 112 on West Walnut Street Road, but learned this week that neither project would be funded.

In fact, County Engineer Jim Peck told the Banner Graphic he was informed by Indiana Department of Transportation Grant Administrator Kathy Eaton-McKalip that the state would not be funding any preservation grants, citing inflated prices.

“The state has decided that they are not going to be able to award any of the bridge preservation projects that anybody across the state had submitted,” Peck said. “Their reasoning is that how this inflation has really driven up the cost of projects is really not cost effective for the state or the counties to have to pay such high, inflated costs for preservation projects.”

This comes on the heels of Putnam County being denied federal aid for the rehabilitation of Dunbar Covered Bridge after local officials balked at paying the full cost of engineering and right-of-way acquisition in the project.

In past federal aid projects, those costs were also included in the state funding, which would pay for 90 percent of the project with a 10-percent local match. However, INDOT also cited inflation in asking localities to shoulder more of the burden.

It’s unclear what the county will do with Bridge 109 and Bridge 112, as the total cost of the two projects was estimated to come in north of $2.8 million, with the county only paying about $260,000.

Now it would be on the hook for the entirety of any work.

The full scale of the work would not have begun for several years anyway, but officials know something must be done to the surfaces sooner, particularly in the case of Bridge 109, which runs over Little Walnut Creek just west of the Madison Township Fire Department.

During a recent meeting, Commissioner Rick Woodall asked Peck if 109 could be patched “because that thing is miserable.”

Peck concurred, noting the concrete of the bridge has already been patched and needs more.

“There’s more asphalt than concrete on that thing right now,” Peck said.

The hope is that costs will normalize and the state will begin awarding the grants again.

“They’re hoping that when things start to come down they’ll be able to go back out and let people begin submitting again for bridge preservation,” Peck said.