Major roadwork continues at the Indian River Inlet Bridge (IRIB), whether or not the Delaware Department of Transportation (DelDOT) knows who’s going to build the new bridge. Or even what the new bridge is going to look like.
Coastal Point • SUBMITTED:
A rendition of a possible look for the Indian River Inlet bridge.
DelDOT delayed projects all around the state following this year’s budget crunch, and tacked another year onto the bridge project, too. State officials are still aiming for project completion in 2010, though, despite a more recent setback.
The department aborted a bid opening last month, when it became clear the sole contractor willing to tackle the job was going to be far more expensive than originally estimated.
DelDOT’s Dennis O’Shea recapped the situation at the Dec. 13 IRIB Construction Advisory Group meeting.
“We’re still trying to see what we can do with the existing design, or whether we’re going to go another way, like design-build,” O’Shea said.
With design-build (DB), DelDOT would contract with a single entity for both architectural and engineering work. That entity would have greater flexibility, especially on the timeline, because it can make adjustments midstream if design changes become necessary.
The state (in the case of DB) still gets the guarantees that work will be completed to specifications, but the added flexibility — and the ability to work out changes in-house, rather than between two or more independent contractors — means potential cost savings for all involved.
However DelDOT re-bids the bridge portion of the project, O’Shea said the major design element would remain unchanged — no piers in the channel.
Some of the strongest currents along the eastern seaboard churn through the Indian River Inlet, and they’re wearing deep holes around the existing upright supports.
This would always be a problem with piers in the channel — so the “clear span” design remains non-negotiable, O’Shea reiterated. However, in response to questions that came up at the November meeting, he said the department was considering the possibility that a different kind of clear span might be more economical.
As proposed, the bridge would feature a 1,000-foot “tied arch.” This means no vertical towers — the bridge is all of a piece, and the girders underlying the roadway “tie” the ends of the arch together. (For a visual, visit www.indianriverinletbridge.com on the Internet.)
O’Shea noted rising materials and labor costs, but suggested the additional risk associated with the tied arch design had been a main factor in the sparse field of prospective bidders.
The lone bid they’d received had actually come from two bidders who’d joined into one, O’Shea said, further narrowing the field of competitors, even as the other contractors drifted away.
“This type of structure is kind of unique, and I think their comfort level was the issue,” O’Shea pointed out. And since then, he’d fielded questions about whether the arch design was critical, or whether a more traditional “cable-stayed” bridge would be more economical.
Cable-stayed is the more familiar look, O’Shea said, with the C&D Canal Bridge being a local example. While there are no 1,000-foot tied arch bridges in the United States, he said there were probably 30 or 40 cable-stayed bridges with this kind of span.
Whether DelDOT will dramatically change the design specs, or shave costs somewhere else before re-bidding the project, remains to be seen.
However, O’Shea said some of the peripheral features that had come out of the public participation process (design charette), like the colored lights on the cable stays, wouldn’t significantly affect the bottom line either way, and the department was hoping to keep them.
He asked for opinions as to whether DelDOT could retain the ideas that had come out of the public workshops, even if the bridge design itself changed significantly, or whether the department should restart that process.
Karen McGrath, executive director for the Bethany-Fenwick Area Chamber of Commerce, said a lot of work had gone into those workshops. They’d spanned two days, with participants studying a lot of choices and a considerable amount of information, McGrath said.
She suggested DelDOT shouldn’t waste those efforts.
Ken Farrall, director at Delaware Seashore State Parks (which include the campgrounds west of the highway), agreed with McGrath.
“A lot of people participated in that charette, and some of them were very vocal about what they did and didn’t want,” he said. “To go away from that, you could raise some hackles.”
Sen. George Howard Bunting (20th District) recommended the department keep moving forward with the guidance it had. “I don’t want to slow up the process,” he said. “As long as we can build a safe bridge, that’s the main thing. We need to get this done.”
DelDOT’s David Duke outlined work in progress and new traffic patterns. To reach the Indian River Inlet, northbound traffic will need to drive past several blocked-off crossovers, and make a U-turn at Savages Ditch.
There is parking for (pedestrian) beach access north of the inlet, but it will be a longer walk. The new parking area is farther west of the bridge, closer to the U.S. Coast Guard station.
Southbound motorists wishing to turn around and head north (for instance, people leaving the campground area) will need to drive south to 3Rs, and make a U-turn there.
Forest Jenkins, who lives on the south side, critiqued the location where DelDOT plans to build the new road past the campground.
While there’s a grassy area between the road and the inlet, Jenkins anticipated problems with children coming out of the campground and crossing the road to go fishing.
He recommended the road wrap around the other side of the campground — but as Dukes and others pointed out, the project would run afoul of wetland impacts on that side of the park.