Cline, MLK bridge demolition could begin at end of month

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Cline Avenue at the Indiana Harbor Shipping Canal after being closed in 2009. Demolition on both Cline Avenue and the MLK bridge in Gary could begin by the end of the month.| File Photo ~Sun-Times Media

Updated: March 16, 2012 8:11AM

Demolition on both the Cline Avenue elevated bridge in East Chicago and the Martin Luther King Drive bridge in Gary could begin by the end of the month, an Indiana Department of Transportation spokesman said Tuesday.

Jim Pinkerton told the Transportation Policy Committee of the Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission that INDOT learned Monday contractors on both projects hoped to start by late February or early March at the latest.

Walsh Construction Co. of Crown Point received an $8.9 million contract to demolish the Cline bridge, a project Pinkerton estimated should be completed by the end of the year. The bridge over the Indiana Harbor and Ship Canal has been closed since 2009 because of structural deficiencies.

Pinkerton said the state is still considering two private proposals to rebuild the Cline Avenue bridge. One proposal would rebuild the bridge as a toll road and the other is described as a long-term financing arrangement by a team of four companies.

Bids for a separate contract to build a new exit ramp from eastbound Cline Avenue to Riley Road will be open in March.

Meanwhile, contractor Dunnet Bay Construction Co., of Glendale Heights, Ill., is expected to start demolition work on the King Drive bridge as part of a $3.1 million bridge replacement project. Pinkerton said the target date for the opening of the bridge is July.

Work on the project is expected to be done during the overnight hours and one lane of the eastbound Borman, west of Interstate 65, could be restricted.

The bridge was built in 2004 to span the widened Borman Expressway.

It’s been closed since May 2010 after an inspection found cracking on the bridge’s deck and support beams. The state is suing the bridge builder, Superior Construction Co. of Gary, to make it pay for the cost of replacing the failed bridge.

Reach reporter Carole Carlson at 648-3154.