Indiana Department of Transportation closed the Cline Avenue bridge in East Chicago due to corrosion found on a bridge inspection. Cline carries almost 36,000 vehicles a day at that spot. An inspection found the combination of the region's weather, air pollution and extensive use of road salt hastened the corrosion. In July 2008, an Indiana Associated Press review of structurally deficient bridges in the state named Cline Avenue over the Indiana Harbor canal -- the same spot were the worst corrosion has been found.
The photo shows a portion of the Cline Avenue Bridge that collapsed during construction, as the concrete deck was being placed on one span. See the Wikipedia page for the Cline Bridge
here.
The bridge on Indiana 912 (Cline Avenue) is closed to all traffic between U.S. 41 (Calumet Avenue) in Hammond and Michigan Avenue in East Chicago.
From the
Post-Tribune of Northwest Indiana.
Posts
A month later we're still waiting for the report. The bridge has had an 80,000lb limit since 2004, but you could commonly see "big" trucks using it. You could feel this bridge and ramps move if you were around truck traffic. I'm not too surprised because some things looked questionable to the naked eye and the seat of your pants. Reductions to local and State budgets have put things like inspections and maintenance as low priorities. In the Midwest, Winters are brutal on these structures but they don't get the extra attention they deserve. In many cases they don't even meet minimum standards. We need more technically oriented people in government because typical politicians don't understand the potential. If there's no potholes it must be OK, right?
ReplyDeleteI believe the bridge had been inspected quite a few times, since that type of bridge had failures in other areas of the country, notably in Florida.
ReplyDeleteIt is not surprising, that this particular bridge failed after finding problems in the past. Those problems grow over time. Especially a bridge with such heavy traffic from the Mills. They are supposedly designed with some flex to them, but I can imagine too much creates cracks, and allows surface water to seep into the area of the cables (tendons?) which provide the support.
I have read comments regarding Cline avenue asking, why did this bridge last only 25 or so years? There are bridges, which carried far more tonnage and traffic than designed. One in particular, was over 100 years old before being retired this year.