One of Bloomington’s busier roads will be closed for a few months as the East Rhorer Road Bridge will be replaced.
The bridge is approximately 600 feet from Sare Road and Jackson Creek Middle School. Between 8,000 and 9,000 cars travel on that bridge in the span of 24 hours.
Lisa Ridge, highway director for the Monroe County Highway Department, said the bridge hasn’t been replaced since it was built in 1966. With a school nearby, in addition to growth in the area, she said the time came to replace it.
“We have to keep up with our bridges, and we're required to do the bridge inspection, so this will just increase the life of that bridge,” she said. “So, 50 plus years.”
Money for the project, just over $555,000, is coming from the Cumulative Bridge Fund.
Rhorer will be closed from July 13th to October 9th. Work will continue under flagging conditions through mid-December. During the closure, traffic will be detoured to nearby roads, including Walnut Street Pike and Rogers Road. Schools will also reroute their buses.
Other bridge projects
A bridge on Eagleson Avenue on Indiana University’s campus, just south of Law Lane, is also set to be replaced. Ridge said it will be closed for a year starting in September. She’s been coordinating with the university and City of Bloomington to manage traffic during the closure.
“There's plenty of ways around campus, so people should be able to get to where they're going, but it probably won't just be as easy,” she said.
The Indiana Department of Transportation will provide about $3.9 million in federal funding for the project. The county will cover the remaining cost of about $976,000.
