Published: July 03, 2008 10:07 pm         

Celebrating history

County marks bridge opening with ice cream

LEWISBURG — Several people told Cass County Highway Engineer Jodi Coblentz the project she started working on nine years ago couldn’t be done.

That proved not to be true, however, as about 45 Cass County residents gathered Thursday for a ribbon-cutting and ice cream social at the rehabilitated Lewisburg Bridge.

Coblentz was pleased with the turnout and said there wasn’t a better way to celebrate than to have ice cream the day before the Fourth of July.

“It’s been quite a trip to make it here,” Coblentz said as she addressed the crowd. “In 1999 when I started, my job was to look at the bridge. I said, ‘There’s barely anything left.’”

When the bridge was first inspected, she said, she thought the highway department would have been lucky to make the bridge last for just a few more years.

After tests were performed on the bridge, the department looked at options and decided to raise funding in 2000.

With the aid of government funding, the project would cost the same amount of money to take down as it would have cost the county to repair, according to Mike Wenning, department manager at American Structurepoint Inc, the company in charge of designing the project.

Total costs to complete the project was just over $2 million, Coblentz said. The county paid $250,000 of the final costs.

Jack Isom Construction started work on the project in December 2006. The original completion date was scheduled for October, but a harsh winter delayed completion until June 17.

The bridge, which is endorsed by the National Landmark Historical Society, the National Registry of Historic Places and Historic Bridges of Indiana, needed a lot of work completed to restore it to its original appearance.

Wenning said the earthen material under the bridge had to be refilled. Workers had to find a way to support the walls because the piers holding up the walls had large holes in them. The foundation was in bad condition and needed to be refilled with new concrete. New railings were also added to match the original bridge as closely as possible.

Karen Swinford, who lives just outside Lewisburg, travels the bridge three times a week and was excited to see the project finally completed.

“I’m tickled to death they could keep it because of its historical aspect, but also because of the convenience,” she said. “I was afraid to drive down the road. It was deteriorating very badly. You could literally see it falling.”

Raymond Bowyer, who lives down the road from the bridge, said the structure meant a lot to the community.

“It means greater mobility and flexibility for local travel,” he said. “It was something surely missed when it was closed.”

Bowyer stopped by the event to thank Coblentz for pushing to complete the project. He said he also glad to see the road widened.

The bridge had been closed since 2005 when part of a pier gave way and a section of the bridge collapsed.

Julian Prugh, a candidate for Cass County Council, also said a few words during the event.

He spoke about two plaques carrying the name of his great-grandfather, Julius Ferdinand Lienemann. Lienemann was a Cass County commissioner when the bridge was built in 1913.

“That’s why I’m so interested in this bridge,” he said. “It’s the only bridge that still bears his name.”

The bridge was built by Daniel B. Luten, who studied at the University of Michigan and taught arch design at Purdue University.

“An estimated 14,000 bridges were built worldwide using Luten’s designs,” Wenning told the crowd. “This is about one of 50 Luten arches remaining in Indiana.”

It was that detail that drew Coblentz to work so hard on preserving a piece of history.

“It ended up being a passion for me to get it done,” she said.

Denise Massie can be reached at (574) 732-5151 or via e-mail at denise.massie@pharostribune.com