Contractors with the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) reopened two lanes of State Road 57 in Newberry on Friday.
Beginning in 2010, drivers were required to follow the traffic signals that only allowed one direction of traffic to travel over the bridge at a time. This temporarily resolved the structural concerns of the bridge.
The construction project originally started in 2013, when INDOT earned a construction contract worth $11.3 million. The new seven-span bridge project is designed to cross over the White River and began when the crews destroyed the earlier structure using explosives in the middle of October.
The crew of contractors at Ragle, Inc. from Newburgh needed to change the traffic flow in order to complete the project involving the 1940 steel-trussbridge that stood over the flow of the White River. Traffic was rerouted onto a different, temporary detour until the construction was completed.
The new bridge as well as the runaround are now reopened to the flow of traffic. Even though drivers are now allowed to cross the bridge, the crews will continue their construction work by continuing to destroy the remains of the steel truss. INDOT encourages motorists to remain alert as they drive, give extra following distance and follow the speed limit signs.
