You may recall that Hamilton County agreed to take the Bell Ford Bridge in 2018 when it was in danger of collapse and s stored the disassembled parts.  It’s original home was Jackson County, but local officials there could not afford to save the historic post truss combination bridge. Hamilton county Commissioners accepted $2.77 million in federal highway funds to largely pay for the restoration of the nation’s last known bridge of its kind

Hamilton County is preparing to put the structure back together as a pedestrian bridge over Fall Creek at Geist Park, a county facility located in Fishers.

“A lot has happened since we first acquired this bridge,” says Hamilton County Commissioner Mark Heirbrandt in a county news release. “We don’t want people to think we forgot about it. Once complete, this historic bridge will really help create a distinct and special experience to all who visit Geist Park.”

The City of Fishers has been busy creating the trail connections that will lead up to the bridge while the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) and Hamilton County Highway Department have been working to secure grant funding. A design team of local citizens being led by VS Engineering has been working to determine the bridge’s aesthetics.

“The bridge will be reconstructed in the same style that it was first built with in 1869,” says Daniel Kurdziel, project manager. “But it will get a bit of facelift. The bridge will receive a more durable roof that mimics the original cedar shake roof and will be rebuilt with the addition of clear polycarbonate siding modeling the original open-air structure. These features will maintain the historic integrity of the original bridge while accenting and protecting the structural members that make this bridge one-of-a-kind.”

Construction on the bridge is scheduled to start in earnest in 2024, nearly 20 years after it was originally placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

If you are preparing to adjust your motoring routes for the east-west closure of 146th Street at State Road 37, that start has been moved back to April 12.  This closure is expected to last 7 days.

Several other road projects are either getting underway or continuing in the local area.

Here is the latest road construction listing, as provided by the City of Fishers:

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You may recall that Verizon informed neighborhoods and Fishers city government officials last December that 5G tower construction would be “paused” for a few months.  It appears that pause will end in the summer months ahead.

Fishers City Spokesperson Stephanie Perry says Verizon has “notified us that they plan to move forward again with permits this summer.”  Some residential parts of the city may see stakes in the ground, but that is “preliminary work that Verizon is doing but does not indicate any finalized locations. These are underground utility installations.”

Perry also says AT&T is installing underground fiber networks this summer. Similar to Metronet, this will be below ground and not above ground towers.  Residents in both the Verizon and AT&T areas should anticipate receiving information about their specific neighborhoods either via the City to their HOAs or through the utility.

Holding a town hall is complicated in the era of a pandemic.  Fishers Mayor Scott Fadness will hold a virtual Twilight Town Hall allowing local residents to ask questions in a format that replaces the old in-person town hall model and allows distancing for all involved.

The mayor will also have Monica Heltz of the Fishers Health Department on hand to answer questions about COVID and other health-related issues.

The Twilight Town Hall is set for Thursday, April 15, at 8pm.

You must register to participate.  Sign-up at this link.

Here is the video version of my podcast with Richie Hall.

High school sports have struggled to get on the field and the court ever since COVID reared its ugly head more than one year ago.  Yet, Indiana has crowned state champions in football and basketball this school year.  Richie Hall, Sports Editor of the Hamilton County Reporter, joins Larry to talk about high school sports in Hamilton County.

After attending several community meeting early in the process for the rebuilding of State Road 37 in Fishers, one thing was clear from the start – one of the greatest engineering challenges of the project would be drainage.

The plans to construct changes to State Road 37 configuration of intersections, much like Keystone Avenue in Carmel, is an effort to end the rush-hour traffic tie-ups at along the state highway.

But that could not happen without a solution to the drainage issues.  Handling that problem has resulted in an award for the firm dealing with it.

According to my news gather partner, the Hamilton County Reporter, Indianapolis-based American Structurepoint and WSP USA have earned a National Recognition Award for exemplary engineering achievement in the American Council of Engineering Companies’ (ACEC) 54th annual Engineering Excellence Awards (EEA) for the State Road 37 Drainage Line Project.

Reaching depths up to 40 feet, the new gravity sewer line will transport stormwater about a mile from the revamped corridor where four signalized intersections have been transformed into a series of interchanges. Because each interchange has a 15- to 20-foot depressed mainline road section with no adjacent gravity sewer outlets, the stormwater trunk lines provide a positive outlet for stormwater and eliminate the need for additional lift stations to pump water away.

The project team’s simplified solution reduced traffic congestion and maintained access to businesses during construction. Along with providing an environmentally friendly, sustainable solution to keep the interchanges free of ponding hazards during heavy rain events, the trunk lines provide a much more aesthetically pleasing drainage solution in a high-traffic, urbanized area.

The project is eligible for additional honors as part of 173 entries this year representing engineering excellence from throughout the nation and the world. Judging for the awards program – known industry-wide as the “Academy Awards of the engineering industry” – took place in February and was conducted by a national 20-member panel of built-environment leaders, along with experts from government, media, and academia. Award criteria focused on uniqueness and originality, technical innovation, social and economic value, and generating excitement for the engineering profession.

Recognition of all award winners including top winners – 20 Honor Awards, 16 Grand Awards, and the prestigious “Grand Conceptor Award” for the year’s most outstanding overall engineering achievement – will take place during the 2021 Virtual EEA Gala, to be held on Thursday, June 17.

by

Fred Swift

Hamilton County Reporter

County Auditor Robin Mills said Monday that her office has scheduled a joint meeting of the Hamilton County Council and County Commissioners for April 23 to hopefully develop “a strategic plan” for the administration and distribution of COVID relief funds.

The county is due to receive $65.6 million over the next two years from the huge $2.9 trillion federal government program designed to compensate local governments for losses suffered as a result of the national pandemic.

Rules on where, when and how the money can be awarded are contained in the federal relief law, which is more than 300 pages long.

Mills

“It’s going to be a long process,” Mills said. She and county grants administrator Todd Clevenger are working on it, along with the assistance of financial consultant Mike Reuter.

That process will start at the April 23 meeting. Mills points out that “I don’t have a vote” on deciding when and where the millions of dollars will go, but she does feel the responsibility for helping to organize handling of the county’s single largest grant in history.

Where is the money likely to go? Some obvious local agencies that are eligible for compensation of lost revenue are county parks and the county tourism bureau.

But, these losses are small in the grand scheme of things.

Overall, the county survived the pandemic in good financial shape, the auditor notes.

Apparently, in certain areas the county can award funds to county schools, libraries and other public institutions which did not get money from the local grant.

The money will first be available on May 10. Despite a long process ahead, the money must be distributed by the end of 2024 or it reverts to the federal treasury.

“COVID-19 is still spreading within the community, at a much lower rate than what it was previously back in the large winter surge we saw in November, December, in the beginning of January.”

That’s the word from Fishers Health Department Epidemiologist Josh Robinson in his weekly COVID-19 video update.  The Fishers Community Risk Level remains at a 3 on a scale of 4 and has remained steady in recent weeks.

According to Robinson, the latest numbers verify that COVID-19 continues to spread within the Fishers area.

The Hamilton County percent positivity rate is at 8.4% as of Tuesday morning.  The Fishers percent positivity rate is 7.7%.  The case incidents rate stands at 27.98.  Robinson says these numbers have increased over the past few weeks.

Robinson asks local residents to continue taking precautions to slow the spread of the virus.  That includes wearing a mask outside your own household, social distancing and washing your hands regularly.

“There have been a lot of projections coming out lately, showing a slight increase in cases across various localities in the U.S.,” Robinson said.  “There (are) also other projections that these increases may continue for a few weeks and then eventually start to decline again in April.”

The Fishers Health Department plans to keep a close eye on local COVID numbers.

Fishers health officials say the availability of testing remains good, with testing appointments available within two days and results ready in two days or less.  Contact tracing is also staying current.

Hospital availability in the counties surrounding Marion, including Hamilton, remains good.

If you need to schedule a COVID vaccination or a COVID test, call 317-595-3211.

To access Josh Robinson’s entire video update posted Tuesday night, use this link.

I am dating myself when quoting the old TV series “Hill Street Blues,” which aired from 1981 through 1987.  At the beginning of most episodes, a character named Phllip Esterhaus (replaced later after the death of actor Michael Conrad who originally played the part) provides a summary to the assembled officers prepared to start their shift on the busy and dangerous city streets.  As Esterhause ends his rundown, he always looked out over the roomful of police and said, “Hey, let’s be careful out there.”

What was true in a fictional police TV series in the 1980s is still true today, but for different reasons.

Our  local Hamilton Southeastern (HSE) Schools are on spring break.  After more that a year dealing with COVID and all that goes with a pandemic of a very contagious and life-threatening disease, everyone badly needs that break.

Vaccinations are increasing at a rapid rate.  I am scheduled for my second injection Friday.

But as many families return from the break and prepare to return, this is where we all need to be extra careful.  I would hope all returning to the Fishers area find a way to get a COVID test.  When traveling, the chances of being infected grow.

HSE Schools Superintendent Allen Bourff says that even though junior high school students will be able to attend in-person classes 4 days per week once returning from the break Monday, April 12, school officials reserve the right to close individual school buildings if COVID outbreaks are detected.

There is a danger that the success of the COVID vaccination program will bring a false sense of security.  This virus is still around and variants are out there that could spread if infections continue.

Look at the state of Michigan, just to our north.  Residents there are seeing a spike in positive cases even though vaccinations continue.  One health professional there says there are more variants spreading there and that has contributed to the COVID infection rate going up.

You can also look at the South American nation, Chile.  One-third of its population of 18 million has already been COVID vaccinated, yet cases have increased to the point of overwhelming the Chilean health system and strict lockdown measures are back in place there.

Why has Chile seen their COVID cases soar?  British newspaper The Guardian reported this:

The speedy vaccination programme appears to have instilled a false sense of security that led the country to ease restrictions too soon without people appreciating the ongoing risks. The country reopened its borders in November and in January introduced permits for Chileans to go on summer holiday. Without strict controls on people entering the country, and the lack of an efficient contact-tracing system, travellers may have brought infections back into the country that were not picked up. 

The last thing we want to see is the “false sense of security” that created the COVID spike in Chile.  These vaccines are nothing short of a medical miracle, made possible by the urgent need of the pandemic and the amazing technology available to medical science now.

So, I know some of you follow this blog as you travel on your spring break vacation, and I sincerely hope you all have a wonderful time.  Just allow me this reminder.

“Hey, be careful out there.”