County officials have approved paying about $75,000 in additional costs to obtain state permits to repair two failing bridges.
For four years, local officials have acknowledged that Bridge 188, located along County Road 400W, just south of County Road 550S, has been in disrepair. Bridge 189, located just 800 feet away on the same road, also needs extensive work or replacement.
It was in early 2018 that the county agreed to pay $145,400 to the Columbus-based engineering consulting firm Strand Associates, Inc. for design services on the two bridges over the East Fork White River at the Ohio-Wayne Township line.
However, both projects kept being postponed for a variety of reasons such as unexpected emergency road closings, a lack of skilled labor and escalating prices for road and bridge materials, county highway engineer Danny Hollander said.
With the exception of State Road 58, County Road 400W has become one of the busiest north-south roads west of Interstate 65 in southern Bartholomew County, Hollander said.
In addition, Bridge 188 was found to be dangerous during a routine bridge inspection a year ago. While temporary repairs on the 50-year-old bridge have been made, they are not likely to hold after this year, Hollander said.
A concern about wetlands in the vicinity of the bridges was brought up two years ago. While the Bartholomew County commissioners had hoped the matter could be addressed without further delays, feedback from the Indiana Department of Environmental Management delayed the bridge replacements last year.
Now, the county has been told by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources that the projects would disturb an estimated 0.68 acres of wetlands. In the past, county engineers were allowed to create their own wetlands to replenish what was disturbed during construction, county Commissioner Tony London said.
However, new state regulatations require that the replacement wetlands be placed in the same watershed where the current wetlands exist, and in the same condition, he said.
“They have sort of made it impossible to create your own,” London said.
New environmental standards state that in order for the county to get the required state permits for the two new bridges, county taxpayers will have to pay $75,600 for what’s called “wetland bank credits” to the Indiana Natural Resources Foundation, Hollander said.
Wetland Mitigation Banking allows a government entity to restore a large wetland area in advance of impacts with the expectation that the sponsor may use or sell wetland credits at a future date. Under certain circumstances, the local government may be allowed to use or sell a percentage of the wetland credits before the wetland is restored.
But in this case, no wetlands will be restored. The money being paid by the county will not result in any more wetlands being created, London said.
“We want the public to know we are not particularly happy with this methodology,” commissioners Chairman Carl Lienhoop said.
Although commissioner Larry Kleinhenz agreed the bridge replacements east of Ogilville have to move forward this year, he said he voted against paying the money “just for the record.” London and Lienhoop voted to pay the extra money for the bridge permits.
“This just doesn’t feel right,” Kleinhenz said. “I wouldn’t want anything to do with this if I were on the other end.”
But Lienhoop says the reason why Wetland Mitigation Banking was created is because “IDEM has been burned so many times” by local units of government outside of Bartholomew County that did not replenish wetlands.
While the IDEM website also expresses concerns that Wetland Mitigation Banking might be misused, the state agency emphasizes that water-saturated ground serves a very important purpose.
More than one-third of America’s threatened and endangered species live only in wetlands, which means they need them to survive, according to the IDEM website. More than 200 species of birds rely on wetlands for feeding, nesting, foraging, and roosting, the website states.
Due to their ability to naturally store and filter nutrients and sediments, wetlands help to make lakes, rivers and streams cleaner and drinking water safer, according to the website.
