Repairs to an unstable pier supporting an Interstate-65 bridge near Lafayette, Ind., were completed over Labor Day weekend, allowing the Indiana Dept. of Transportation to reopen a 37-mile section of the highway's northbound lanes that had been closed to traffic for more than four weeks.
The 394-ft, five-span continuous steel multibeam-girder bridge across Wildcat Creek was shut down on Aug. 7, when pile-driving being performed as part of a widening project apparently caused the structure's 43-ft-tall, 10.5-ft-wide middle pier to rotate and settle as much as 10 in. into the riverbank. An investigation led by INDOT, the Federal Highway Administration and contractor Walsh Construction Co. determined the newly driven piles had penetrated the site's watertight, granular soils and pierced an underlying sandy layer with groundwater under pressure.