The bridge that spans the Wabash River and connects New Harmony, Ind., with White County, Ill., closed May 21. A team of engineers deemed the bridge too dangerous to remain open. DENNY SIMMONS / Evansville Courier & Press
The bridge that spans the Wabash River and connects New Harmony, Ind., with White County, Ill., closed May 21. A team of engineers deemed the bridge too dangerous to remain open. DENNY SIMMONS / Evansville Courier & Press

—Lawmakers in Indiana and Illinois are looking for ways to give the recently closed New Harmony Bridge the financial boost necessary to foot a hefty repair bill.

One option being discussed: Turning its ownership over to a new two-state commission.

The goal is to do away with the three-member White County Bridge Commission, the private entity that has run the bridge for decades, and replace it with a public commission with its members appointed by local officials.

That private-to-public transition could enable the bridge's operators qualify for grants and other financial help from the federal government and the two states.

It's a solution Illinois state Rep. David Reis, R-Ste. Marie, and Indiana state Rep. Wendy McNamara, R-Mount Vernon, plan to pitch to their legislatures.

"Everyone wants to find a solution. We understand the economic value of the bridge," McNamara said.

The two are considering measures that would have Indiana and Illinois each appoint three members to a two-state compact that would work out the details of whether and how a commission might be set up.

If that group can agree on an arrangement, local governments would appoint members of the commission that would then be tasked with coming up with ways to fund repairs to the bridge, or perhaps to replace it.

The problem is, with both the Illinois and Indiana departments of transportation refusing to take ownership of the bridge or provide much financial assistance for its repair, finding enough money to do that will be a challenge.

"We don't want another Band-Aid — spend $2 million here this year to give it three more years of life, or spend $10 million to give it 10 more years of life. That continues to exacerbate the problem and push it off for future generations to solve," McNamara said.

That, she said, is her concern with the bi-state commission approach.

"Are you going to get enough money to get a 40-year fix or a 50-year fix doing it that way? I would like to see some actual funding that solves the problem once and for all," she said.

That approach is the opposite of what Jim Clark, the chairman of the White County Bridge Commission, favors.

He said he'd like to see Indiana and Illinois each contribute $1 million to repair an understructure engineers recently concluded could not support the weight of the bridge itself, let alone vehicle traffic.

Those engineers said the steel webbing had deteriorated to such an extent that it was half of its original size, and they found multiple holes several inches wide that had developed in that understructure.

Clark said repairing those problems and opening the bridge back up to the 1,000 vehicles that cross it each day as quickly as possible should be the goal.

"If we had $1 million from each state — and that's not a lot of money when it comes to the states — we could repair that understructure," Clark said. "We'd still have an old bridge. It would still need painting and that kind of thing. But in these hard economic times, that would be the route that I would go. I wouldn't shoot for the whole thing; I would just get us back to where we could get in operation and have traffic flow again."

Still, that amount is less than the $8.4 million in repairs engineers said the bridge would need before the most recent inspection — a number that has certainly increased since.

Clark said he does not expect Indiana and Illinois to go along with the idea of a two-state commission.

"We all want that so bad, but the chances of it flying are very minimal," he said. "It just doesn't look good right now."

McNamara, who is a member of the Indiana House's transportation committee, said the proximity of other bridges, even if they're far out of farmers' way, and the fact that state governments do not operate the bridge makes securing funding difficult.

"In reality, it's a private bridge. There's a state bridge 15 minutes north and a state bridge 15 minutes south of it. If the state of Indiana wanted to not get involved, there's really no obligation for them to," she said.

Therefore, she said, at some point city or county governments might have to take some level of responsibility for it if they want the bridge repaired.

It's an idea that the Indiana Department of Transportation has floated. It suggested that Posey County could take over the bridge and qualify for state grants, if, in exchange, the county would also take over maintaining 35 miles of state highway. The county turned down the offer.

"Everyone wants to find a solution. We understand the economic value of the bridge," McNamara said. But we need to continue to seek those solutions that are there but also the local community needs to be willing to accept some of the responsibility for that."

If a two-state panel is not the solution, other options could include some kind of deal that involves a private entity operating the bridge, with a local or state government signing on as a bond lender.

Another could involve a ferry, although Clark said he does not see that as a viable option.

"There are a lot of options out there, I think," McNamara said. "We just have to find the best one that continues to serve the community."

Michael "Spud" Egbert, the bridge commission's secretary-treasurer, said its future is all he hears about from people ranging from the parents of children he's coached in sports leagues to his own children, who drive across the bridge to work in New Harmony.

"They've called me," he said, "and asked, 'When are you going to get that bridge back open?'"

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