By VICKI URBANIK

Less than a year old, the new bridge that accesses U.S. Steel’s Midwest plant in Portage has developed cracks that are raising serious concerns for county officials responsible with the bridge maintenance.

North Porter County Commissioner John Evans said the county will close the bridge if the cracks become a public safety hazard and that the county may want to terminate its agreement with the state requiring the county to maintain the bridge.

As directed by the commissioners Tuesday, county attorney Gwenn Rinkenber will write a letter to the Indiana Department of Transportation stating that the county’s position is that the cracks are a construction issue, not a maintenance issue, and are the responsibility of the state’s.

The bridge officially opened in July of last year with a highly festive ceremony that featured U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky, then-Indiana governor Joe Kernan, a host of other state and local officials, and union and steel officials.

The new, $6.1 million bridge -- known as the South Shore Industrial Safety Overpass that extends from Ind. 249 -- replaces the at-grade crossing over two sets of railroad tracks, one of which was the site of a triple fatality in 1998 between a truck transporting a steel coil and a South Shore passenger train. After that collision, the federal government called for either closing the crossing or making permanent improvements. The latter was accomplished through what was termed as a remarkable cooperative effort between federal, state and local officials.

But today, county officials are far from happy with the bridge.

“Quite frankly, I don’t want anything to do with the bridge,” County Highway Engineer Dave Schelling told the commissioners Tuesday.

Schelling displayed a photo of concrete that has broken off on the deck of the bridge. The broken-off part has in turn caused other cracks to develop.

“That just tells me the concrete is going to pop out eventually,” he said.

Schelling said that at this point he does not believe that public safety is jeopardized by the cracks, but that the cracks do point to the need for maintenance soon. He noted that the bridge, which serves as the only access to the Midwest plant, is used daily by heavy steel-hauling trucks.

Last year, during the opening ceremony, the statistic was given that 2,250 vehicles crossed the previous railroad tracks daily, 250 of which were trucks going to and from the steel mill.

In an agreement signed with the state before the bridge was finished, the county commissioners assumed maintenance responsibility. As Schelling noted Tuesday, this was highly unusual, since all bridges that cross state highways and interstates are maintained by the state, not the county.

But Evans said the commissioners were told by the state that the bridge would never get built if the county didn’t agree to maintain it.

“We signed that agreement under duress,” Evans said.

Schelling said he does not know how much the repairs to the bridge would cost. One of the problems is that the underside of the bridge is covered by steel forms, making it difficult to ascertain the extent of the damage, he said.

Schelling said one option that the county has is to place truck weight limits on the bridge. The commissioners also discussed the possibility of terminating its agreement with INDOT and, as Evans suggested, closing the bridge if the damage worsens.

Rinkenberger said the damage described by Schelling appears to be connected with the actual construction of the bridge. The state contracted out for the bridge construction, not the county, so the responsibility lies with the state, she said.

Posted 4/6/2005