It appears that the ongoing saga of the Ford Road bridge is not finished yet. Late in January, the Boone County Council voted to commit $500,000 to the construction of a concrete bridge with wooden railings. This is a last ditch effort to retain $2.5 million in federal funding for a replacement bridge that has been in planning since 1995 but has been held up amid bickering over the exact type of bridge to be constructed. The $500,000 is the required 20% share of the projected cost needed to receive the federal funding. At this point, there are no plans, specs or cost estimates for the newly proposed concrete bridge.
Unfortunately, due to lack of progress on plans for a new Ford Road bridge, the Indiana Department of Transportation has removed the bridge from it’s list of planned projects as of January 29th. Subsequently, the county has lost the current $2.5 million federal grant. In addition, over $540,000 spent on engineering for the truss bridge will have been wasted.
At this point there is no longer a guarantee of federal or state matching funds to assist in the construction of the new bridge. Nor is there a definitive plan for the design of the new bridge.
Below is a timeline of the events leading to this situation:
2006
County Commissioners, County Council and Zionsville Town Council were all in agreement to use a truss bridge, to be re-erected from a State Road in Shelby County. The truss was considered significant by INDOT and was taken down in 2010, and stored with INDOT for reuse. The truss project would also include moving 96th St. further north to intersect with Ford Road and would include a passing lane and improvement to the south approach. This project was scheduled to be completed in the fall of 2012. Federal funds were available for this project.
2006-2010
Work proceeded on truss plans, design, permits, etc. Project was on track to be completed by the fall of 2012.
Late 2010
County Councilman Gene Thompson presented against the truss to the Zionsville Town Council at an agenda planning meeting. This Town Council was still is in favor of the truss.
January 2011
Zionsville Town Council member Candace Ulmer and County Councilman Gene Thompson begin to openly express disinterest in the truss project. Engineer for truss spends countless hours answering questions from these individuals and countering misinformation which arose. Work on the project slows drastically as the Commissioners attempt to answer their questions.
December 2011
Public hearing held at Zionsville with overwhelming public support for the truss. This hearing was the last step before moving to the acquisition phase of the project.
January-April 2012
Newly elected Zionsville Town Council begins to openly express disinterest in the truss project. Commissioners continue to attempt to compromise with the Zionsville Town Council and subsequently agree to widen the bridge to the “desired width” and to modify the south curve further. Zionsville Town Council continues to express their disagreement with the truss, Commissioners continue to attempt to reconcile with both the Town Council and the County Council. County Council continues to try to build the bridge (per state statute, the Commissioners are given control of bridges and the Council is in charge of the funds only). The project is stalled.
April 2012
Zionsville Town Council sends letter to County stating that “Zionsville Town Council” wants “to start from scratch” on this project thus ending compromise talks.
May 2012
County Council begins talks of defunding. County Council has been told that they could lose their federal funds. Councilman Gene Thompson states at the Council meeting that “that’s not accurate” when told that the “federal funds could be in jeopardy or possibly lost” or that the Council “runs the risk of not having any federal money available for any project in the area because of tightness of federal funds”….Mr. Thompson says that “we shouldn’t rely on this information”. Councilman Thompson’s information was later known to be false, as the INDOT funding was completely lost in January 2013.
July 2012
Councilman Gene Thompson motions to defund the truss bridge. The final vote was 4-2 to defund. Those voting to defund were Gene Thompson, Marcia Wilhoite, David Rogers and Steve Jacob. Those voting to continue the project were Brent Wheat and Butch Smith. Debbie Shubert was gone. The project was defunded. Both Zionsville and the Council know at this time that there is the potential for INDOT to defund the project and were aware of what this would cost the taxpayers of Boone County if that happened.
September 2012
Councilmen Gene Thompson, Marcia Wilhoite and Steve Jacob meet with INDOT and are told that without the county funds, the project is no longer eligible for federal funds. Commissioners request the County Council refund the truss bridge based on their Resolution 2012-05. Council votes: 3 votes in favor of refunding and continuing the project (Butch Smith, Brent Wheat, Debbie Shubert), 2 votes in favor of defunding (Gene Thompson, David Rogers), Marcia Wilhoite couldn’t decide and abstained. Steve Jacob did not vote as he determined a supermajority was required so he didn’t need to vote. The bridge was not refunded.
January 2013
INDOT letter to County informing them that they are in danger of losing their $2.58MM federal funds for the bridge and that a final decision will be made on Jan. 29th. INDOT subsequently takes away the $2.58MM federal funds for the Ford bridge. The County must now reapply for funds if they want to replace the bridge using federal funds.
