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> County seeking help on Franklin St Bridge
Southsider2k12
post Jan 5 2022, 02:26 PM
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https://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/laporte...5fda5a9001.html

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Federal funding is being sought to replace the historic Franklin Street drawbridge in Michigan City.

Whether to replace or rehabilitate the 1932 lakefront bridge over Trail Creek has been debated for years.

The issue appears to have been settled by recent reports that the condition of the bridge is declining more rapidly than expected.

“This is falling apart. I just see the deterioration going too fast, too quick,” said LaPorte County Councilman Mark Yagelski.

This episode of the "Riding Shotgun with NWI Cops" series takes viewers around Munster in the midst of the holiday season.

The LaPorte County Commissioners are asking U.S. Rep. Frank J. Mrvan, D-Highland, to try to secure money from the $1.2 trillion federal infrastructure bill signed last month by President Joe Biden.
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Southsider2k12
post Jun 30 2022, 09:25 AM
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https://wsbt.com/news/local/michigan-city-r...-problems-arise

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For nearly 100 years, the main way to get to Michigan City’s Washington Park has been to drive over the Franklin Street Bridge.

But the bridge's future is once again in doubt.

Exactly one year ago today WSBT reported that 1.5 million dollars was needed to fix old electrical systems, or else the Franklin Street drawbridge would continue to break down.

It's one year later and even though those fixes were made, new problems are causing issues.

It's working right now, but within less than two weeks, the bridge was out of commission four times.

“Just this morning at 6 o'clock this morning the gates didn't work right,” said Richard Mrozinski, LaPorte County Commissioner ®.

It was down for a full night last week due to a NIPSCO power outage.

Commissioner Mrozinski says it's become an all-too-common issue, but the actual issues keep changing.

Simply put, the bridge is old, and it takes both time and specialty work to fix.

“A bridge this old and of this design you can't just go down to the bridge store and get parts. They had to have parts specially made and some of them came from Germany or coming from California,” said Mrozinski.

The county has allocated 1.5 million dollars for repairs during the winter over a five year window.

Mrozinski says it's safe for now, and the mechanics do a great job working with the old bridge.

“It will come to the point where the band-aids won't work. You're right. It will need a total rebuild or a replacement, or an alternative,” said Mrozinski.

“We need to start thinking about it now. We don't want to wait until the bridge does not operate and then sit here with their heads in the sand saying gee we should've done something,” said Mrozinski.

The bridge is vital to the local economy, as it's the main route to get Washington Park and the beach.

During what's considered a quiet time, you can see traffic backing up past city hall.

And today the bridge was only up for a few minutes.

However, if it's ever broken for a longer period of time, they'll have no choice but to cut off a main artery of the city.

“They bring in a crane, they hook onto it and jack it open. They will leave it open until they fix it so it will work again. Then nobody goes over the bridge because the waterway has priority,” said Mrozinski.

Mrozinski says the scheduled yearly maintenance should, after the five years, make the bridge better, but he says you just never know.

And he hopes the next issue isn’t serious.
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