Monroe County share of Eagleson Avenue bridge replacement OK’d: $976K

The bridge on Eagleson Avenue just south of Law Lane on the Indiana University campus will get replaced next year.

That’s based on an agreement with INDOT, approved by Monroe County commissioners at their regular Thursday meeting, which involves a payment of $976,146 by the county toward the project. That’s 20% of the project cost. INDOT is covering the remainder, which is $3,904,587.

At Thursday’s meeting, county highway director Lisa Ridge said that letting for the project would start in January 2026.

The bridge is in “Poor” condition, based on data in the National Bridge Inventory. The bad condition of the bridge was one reason that county commissioners were reluctant to accept the transfer of the bridge from Indiana University to the county’s inventory of right-of-way—without a clear path to getting the bridge repaired.

At Thursday’s meeting, Ridge said IU was not able to go through the federal aid process to get the cost covered. But Monroe County government was able to tap that source of funding, to get nearly $4 million of the cost covered.

Ridge commented on Thursday morning about the nearly $1 million for the 20% local match that is coming from Monroe County’s highway money. Ridge said that INDOT had awarded Monroe County about $2.4 million for the Karst Trail extension, at the same time it awarded the money for the bridge replacement. That meant overall, Monroe County came out ahead. Ridge put it like this: “Monroe County actually came out over a million dollars to the good on this.”

In the National Bridge Inventory, bridges are rated Good (G), Fair (F), for Poor (P), based on the lowest rating of three scored items: deck, superstructure and substructure. If the lowest of those ratings is greater than or equal to 7, the bridge is classified as Good; if it is less than or equal to 4, the classification is Poor. Bridges rated 5 or 6 are classified as Fair.

In Monroe County, of the 233 bridges that The B Square found in the National Bridge Inventory, more than half (143) are rated Good. About one-third of the county’s bridges (85) are rated Fair. Five of the county’s bridges, including the one on Eagleson Avenue are rated Poor.