Jasper County Democrat, Volume 13, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 September 1910 — BRIDGE BUILDING IN JASPER. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

BRIDGE BUILDING IN JASPER.

Longest Wooden Bridge in State To Be Shortened 525 Feet. STORY OF LAST EXTENSION And What the Taxpayers Got for Their Money—Some Interesting History of the Burke’s Bridge, That for Many Years Was Called “the Jasper County Sink-Hole.”

The letting of the contract for the repairs to the Burke’s bridge by the county commissioners last week, will reduce in length that locally noted, at least, structure to 415 feet. At present it is 940 forty long, and is the longest wooden wagon bridge in Indiana. The bridge spans the Iroquois river about four miles directly north of Rensselaer, and thousands of dollars of county monev has been sunk there in "repairs” and trying to build a grade, until it became generally known throughout the county as “the Jasper county sink hole.' 7 In former years there was practically no channel to the river at that point, and the water spread out over considerable < territory on each side of what ought to have been the channel, making the muck ground soft and shaky dnd utterly unrealiable for a foundation.

Contractors used to get all their material on the ground and then put a large force at work and try to get the “repairs" up to grade line in a few hours, while the commissioners were being hustled, to the scene to accept it before the grade should sink out of sight, as it frequently did in a night. Willows were planted along on the north and their roots have no doubt helped much to retain Jthe material placed there in later years, and it has been the south end that lias given the most

irouble since until the iroquois ditch was put through. The dredge for this cut a channel that has caused the muck land to drv out on eac’- to a great extent, and the water seldom gets outside the channel any more. The specifications for the re pairs now being made call for the cutting off of the piling on 525 feet of the north end of the bridge 8 inches below the sur face of the ground, dropping down and replacing the caps, stringers and floor planking an! then covering with 765 yards of earth and covering, the earth one foot deep with 310 yards of grav el 16 foot wide for the roadway or grade. This work will cost Jasper county at the contract price of 53.40 per lineal foot.

$1,785, and something will have to be done on the south end also where a “140 foot” extension was built about five vearS ago, this being in bad condition. By the way, this 140 foopextension is said to be short about 30 feejt of what the contractors got pay for. We have been unable to find the plans and specifications in the auditors office, and in fact they seem to hav .* come up missing. But it is understood that 140 feet was the length called for. Road Record Xo. 6, at page 217, in the auditor’s office, shows that the contract for this extension was let Dec. 6, 1904 to the Pan American Bridge Go., for SI.OOO. They were to have extra pay if the piling was driven beyond a certain depth but we are unable to state what that depth was to be. The same record at Page 228, (March 7, 1905) says “Extension completed and cause dropped.”

Commissioners’ Record 12 at page 570, shows allowances of 51.479.20 to said Bridge Co., for this extension. The claim was filed Feb. 27, 1905, and in said claim the contract price is aL leged to have been $1,160, and 532 feet of extra piling at 60 cents per foot, a total of s3l9* brings the bill up to $1,479. Now as a matter of fact the Pan American Bridge Co., had little to do with making-this extension. The work was done, we are told, by' S. L. Luce of Demotte. a brother-in-law of the then president of the board of commissioners, Abe Halleck. who bought the piling, put if down and paid the bills. We are told by a reliable party' who has lately examined the bridge that lie thinks the two outside rows of piling were put down full depth, but that the inside rows, under the stringers, have sunk down eight or ten inches, leaving that much space between the stringers and the tops of the piling, and that he could only make about 110 feet of the new extension. In other words, if his deductions are correct —and the gentleman is thoroughly' reliable and competent to make theifi —Jasper county' received 30 feet less in length on this extension than she paid for, and She was probably not given all the piling she paid for either., r i

Regarding the present repairs, the earth and gravel have to he hauled less than half a mile, and many well informed men say the work ought to be done for .SI,OOO to $1,200. But there was but one bid filed and that was $3.40 per lineal foot, a total of SL7B.'' for the 525 feet to be repaired.

Above is a picture 6f “Burke s Bridge taken a few years ago showing it as it appears to-day, before the reduction in its length which is now being made. The small boy at the left is Jacob Moore of Rensselaer.