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IN-IL: New Harmony Bridge

Started by mukade, October 27, 2011, 10:28:23 PM

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mukade

News on the Rickety bridge connecting Illinois Rte. 14 and Indiana SR 66. Other than SR 68, I am not sure what roads should really be turned over to Posey County. Certainly not SR 66, and SR 69 connects a porton the Ohio River to I-64. SR 69 is also part of the NHS.

I am not sure why potential funding sources from Illinois aren't listed. Any ideas?

INDOT doesn't want New Harmony bridge (Evansville Courier Press)
INDOT presents New Harmony Bridge proposals (Carmi, IL Times)


tvketchum

Nothing is on the Illinois end, whereas the Indiana side, the bridge drops into downtown New Harmony. The bridge is more important to New Harmony and Indiana than it is to Illinois, with I 64 nearby to the north. Besides, Illinois would face the same realities - less than 1000 vehicles a day, limited funds in budgets already, and the added expense of maintaining an aging facility. The most feasible solution is to close the bridge, and tear it down.

Alps

I thought Indiana currently is well under their mileage cap, do they need to turn anything over?

kphoger

I used to drive through Crossville on Route 1 pretty much every day for months before realizing that road even went to Indiana.   :-/
Keep right except to pass.  Yes.  You.
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Male pronouns, please.

Quote from: Philip K. DickIf you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use them.

kharvey10

I wouldn't want IDiOT touch a bridge like New Harmony with a 50 foot pole right now with the rate they're tearing down truss bridges in the past decade.

adt1982

The White County Bridge Commission has decided to close the New Harmony Bridge.

http://www.courierpress.com/news/2012/may/20/no-headline---ev_bridge/

mukade

Deteriorating Indiana toll bridge to close (Indy Star)

Despite the title, the bridge connects Illinois and Indiana.

tdindy88

#7
I had taken a series of pictures for an eventual AARoads set on SR 66 from Tell City west to New Harmony and I had thought about crossing the bridge, I didn't do it but now I wish I had taken the opportunity. I have been across it once though, so I have at least experienced it and when I get that set completed I will also have a few pictures with that bridge. So, will SR 66 just end at that final intersection by the parking lot to the New Harmony visitors center (Arthur Street) or does it get truncated to SR 69 a mile to the east? And what about the Illinois side with SR 14, could it get truncated to SR 1?

mukade

I also have some pictures of the bridge and drove over it. My guess is that SR 66 will end where it does for now - it always ended just before the bridge. Neither SR 66 nor route 14 was on the bridge.

hbelkins

#9
Quote from: adt1982 on May 21, 2012, 11:39:24 AM
The White County Bridge Commission has decided to close the New Harmony Bridge.

http://www.courierpress.com/news/2012/may/20/no-headline---ev_bridge/

Decided to close? It's been closed for years.

Oh, wait, I guess it was just a temporary closure when I was there on 4/20/08.

http://www.millenniumhwy.net/2008_STL_Day_3/index.html


Government would be tolerable if not for politicians and bureaucrats.

adt1982

#10
Yes, it was closed for 7 months a few years ago.

Alps

I better get to Evansville before they go imploding it...

kharvey10

New Harmony has a lot of historic sites, I spent a day there back in 2009 and took a few photos of the bridge and toll booth.  InDOT has gone to all-electronic tolling for the IN 62 bridge near Mt. Vernon since the last time I was in that area.  (My mom has a friend that reside near Mt. Vernon, IN due to employment-related reasons.)

mukade

INDOT offering $10 million toward new New Harmony bridge

I guess I still don't understand why IDOT (or some Illinois agency) shouldn't pay the same amount.

silverback1065

Is there any point to fixing this bridge 1,000 cars a day seems like its a waste of time and money

jnewkirk77

I believe the goal is to get IDOT to kick in a like amount, but I don't believe for a moment that IDOT has the ability or desire to do anything with it.

Just for kicks, I wonder if perhaps a floating bridge might work at New Harmony.  It's something that just came to me and it's probably a dumb idea, but maybe it would be less expensive.  Aside from pleasure boating, there's no need to deal with river navigation ... I dunno.

NE2

How do the costs of running a ferry compare to those of building a bridge?
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silverback1065

a floating bridge would be cool!

jnewkirk77

Quote from: NE2 on August 08, 2012, 08:24:31 PM
How do the costs of running a ferry compare to those of building a bridge?

Someone asked about that a while back, and I'm not entirely sure the river is deep enough at that point to support one.  I can tell you it's certainly not sufficient right now (what with the drought and all).

mukade

Quote
Illinois won't pony up any state or local tax dollars to help build a new bridge across the Wabash River near New Harmony, the state's top transportation official told Indiana.

Illinois won't offer money for New Harmony bridge (Evansville Courier & Press)

dirtroad66

I can't remember where I read this but Illinois considers the new harmony bridge was replaced by the I64 crossing back in the 70's with the decommissioning of us460.

jnewkirk77

The Posey County commissioners voted today to accept the Harmony Way bridge from the White County Bridge Commission. The Courier & Press article on the transfer indicates that whatever money the Bridge Commission has left (about $15k) will go to Posey County, so I guess you could say they're paying to get rid of it.

http://www.courierpress.com/news/local-news/southwest-indiana/posey-county-to-assume-ownership-of-closed-new-harmony-bridge_07503377

silverback1065

Quote from: jnewkirk77 on August 19, 2014, 06:59:44 PM
The Posey County commissioners voted today to accept the Harmony Way bridge from the White County Bridge Commission. The Courier & Press article on the transfer indicates that whatever money the Bridge Commission has left (about $15k) will go to Posey County, so I guess you could say they're paying to get rid of it.

http://www.courierpress.com/news/local-news/southwest-indiana/posey-county-to-assume-ownership-of-closed-new-harmony-bridge_07503377

That bridge looks completely unsalvageable, I trust the state inspectors, they should tear that bridge down and build a new one.  Repairing it will be way too costly.

jnewkirk77

And that may well be the end result. The thing that all of the local stakeholders agreed on was that to have any chance at either fixing and reopening or tearing down and building anew, it had to be turned over to a local or state government. Indiana would've kicked in $10 mil, but Illinois wouldn't (and in all probability couldn't) match that. New Harmony town government couldn't do much, and that basically left the county.

Now, it could be that it all comes to nothing in the end, but there is a distinct impression out there now that there is a light at the end of this tunnel, and it might not even be from an oncoming train. I hope they can pull something off here. It'd be nice to have that corridor back open again.

hbelkins

This caused me to go back and look at my photos from 2008. A couple of things I noticed:

1.) They've added a better barricade since then.



2.) Why was the "Toll Bridge Pay Ahead" sign added since the bridge has been closed?



Compare these to the photo accompanying the story:



Government would be tolerable if not for politicians and bureaucrats.



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