Flooding destroys roads, bridges, quarry; what’s the impact?

Historic flooding late last week washed away roads, destroyed bridges and levees, and forced emergency repairs across the state, creating a pressing new infrastructure challenge at a particularly complicated moment for Indiana’s transportation system.

The flooding caused some of its worst infrastructure damage in central and east-Central Indiana, where rushing water washed out entire sections of roads, undermined bridges, and destroyed levees. At least 1,000 residents have been displaced statewide, and seven people have died as of Monday.

In Hamilton County, floodwaters and severe erosion destroyed part of the Hazel Dell Parkway bridge just south of 106th Street in Carmel, forcing officials to plan a total replacement, while the surrounding landscape continues to shift near the flooded massive Martin Marietta quarry. Jaw-dropping drone footage of the flooding showcased a chunk of the bridge ripped apart on Saturday, August 15, diverting water into the quarry in a scene that rivaled Niagara Falls for hours (the main open pit is 200 to 400 feet deep – equivalent to a 15 to 30-story building).

In Henry County, Riley Road was left with a gaping hole (later the scene of a cyclist’s death), and in Indianapolis, portions of River Road near 96th Street were washed away so extensively that crews could not immediately determine the full scope of repairs. Floodwaters also washed out a section of I-70 near Richmond on August 12 (“It is a hot mess” News Director Jeff Lane of WQLK Kicks 96 told WXIN-TV Fox 59 in Indianapolis the following morning), forcing a 50-mile detour, although Indiana Department of Transportation crews completed a permanent repair and reopened the interstate in less than 32 hours, thanks to materials being readily available nearby from the Revive I-70 construction.

On Monday, floodwaters continued to block roads in Madison Township in Morgan County, a day after firefighters rescued several people and pets from rising water. Some roads remained completely submerged and impassable, and firefighters warned drivers that floodwater can conceal washed-out pavement or currents strong enough to carry away a vehicle.

Some communities lamented that they did not even have a sufficient supply of “Road Closed” signs to warn travelers of all the issues with assorted throughfares.

Beyond the cost of rebuilding damaged infrastructure, the disaster threatens a major Central Indiana source of the stone used to make asphalt and concrete, raises questions about whether older roads and bridges can withstand increasingly severe storms . . . and arrives while Indiana has forgone hundreds of millions of dollars in dedicated road revenue through the Governor’s suspension of the gas taxes for nearly six months.

Brian Gould, executive director of the Build Indiana Council, describes the timing as difficult but believes that the absence of gas tax revenue should not prevent Indiana from handling the immediate emergency.

“Obviously, bad timing. Never an ideal time for something like this to happen,” Gould remarks. “But we do believe, you know, whether the gas tax was in place or not right now, probably would not have a huge impact on how those emergencies were dealt with.” He also stresses that the immediate focus is and should be on residents who lost family members, homes or property.

Emergency infrastructure repairs operate differently from the long-term road program. For example, crews moved onto I-70 within hours, while another section toward Richmond received repairs after pavement began sliding toward a drainage ditch. By contrast, though, the Hazel Dell bridge will likely become a long-term project . . . and an expensive one.

“Because the span is longer than 20 feet, the bridge is a county asset and the county’s responsibility. Hazel Dell Parkway itself stays under city jurisdiction,” says Carmel City Councilor Adam Aasen (R), a former House Republican staffer. Hamilton County Commissioner Christine Altman (R), the council’s point person on transportation issues over the past two decades, pegs the rebuild at $7 million to $10 million on a 2-year+ timetable, and Carmel Mayor Sue Finkam (R) acknowledges that the city and county will work together on this project – complicated by the requirements for permitting in a regulated waterway, notes Councilor Aasen.

Two days after offering the lengthy time estimate, Commissioner Altman Wednesday suggested that it could be expedited. “The Governor has signed an executive order that is speeding up the permitting process not only for us but for the residents that will need to have any type of permits in the flood-affected areas, which is excellent news,” she explains. “We think we’ve devised a plan to, concurrently with design, remove the debris, which is significant in that water course, and have that area ready to bid and let contracts in for reconstruction of that bridge.”

The larger infrastructure concern in Carmel is more than just the Hazel Dell bridge.

Floodwaters have inundated the Martin Marietta quarry in Carmel as erosion is dramatically changing the surrounding terrain. Gould warns that the quarry is a significant source of aggregate – the crushed stone used in concrete and asphalt –for road construction and development throughout Central Indiana.

“It looks like that location will be offline for quite a considerable amount of time,” Gould expects, though it’s too early to tell the extent of the damage and the quarry’s future.

The F.E. Harding Asphalt Company (now operating as part of Howard Companies) North Plant is located on 96th Street in Indianapolis, directly across the road from the Martin Marietta quarry . . . and across Crystal Lake from another major road disaster, the collapse of a large stretch of Brandt Road and River Road in Indianapolis, the heavily traveled best direct access from 96th Street to Keystone at the Crossing.

“When you can’t get the aggregate out to them, then obviously you can’t produce concrete and asphalt at those plants,” Gould explains. “Those are major suppliers for City of Indianapolis, for INDOT projects.”

The industry is already talking with other aggregate producers about moving stone around Central Indiana. But Gould anticipates contractors could need to haul aggregate into the region from farther away over the next 12 to 24 months, increasing haul rates, fuel expenses, and other transportation costs.

This could be a major ripple effect from the flooding: even road projects that suffered no direct flood damage could become more expensive if contractors must haul basic construction materials longer distances.

The timelines of some major projects may also have to be altered. August 24 is the scheduled contract letting for the planned $44.9 million split-level roundabout interchange at 146th Street and Hazel Dell Parkway connecting Noblesville and Carmel, and utility relocation work was to begin in September. But the site is four miles north of the now-defunct 106th Street bridge, and state, county, and local officials must now determine whether that critical Hazel Dell intersection can also be restricted while the southern end of Hazel Dell is closed at 116th Street for what could be two years . . . close to the expected timeline of the 146th Street project (and a smaller roundabout was due to be constructed by the City of Carmel within a stone’s throw of 146th Street beginning next month, with an expected 45- to 60-day closure; that project may now be in doubt as the city considers the impact on Hazel Dell, as well as available cash, construction crews, and material).

The cleanup itself could also carry a hefty price tag, as billions gallons of water poured into the quarry (the equivalent of about 16,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools). “That is 9 billion gallons that did not continue downstream toward Indianapolis and make the flooding there worse,” comments Carmel City Council member Adam Aasen (R), a former House Republican staffer, whose council district includes the damaged bridge and quarry, and borders Indianapolis.

That’s not easy to just clean up, and Councilor Aasen writes that “Our city engineer wants to look at whether that basin can be formally used for stormwater detention going forward.”

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had become involved this weekend at the Hamilton County mine after local officials requested engineering assistance to determine the extent of the damage and how water entering the quarry site could affect surrounding infrastructure.

This substantial flooding in the quarry could also create a longer-term infrastructure threat, not just related to its materials. Water reversed the flow of Blue Woods Creek and began carving a new channel toward the Martin Marietta quarry running the length of Hazel Dell Parkway from 106th Street to 96th Street.

Carmel City Engineer Bradley Pease warned on Tuesday that if the channel connects with the White River, as officials estimated had an 85% chance of occurring, as much as a total of nine billion gallons of water could pour into the quarry over roughly six hours and further destabilize the area. The Hazel Dell Parkway bridge has already been declared a total loss and could collapse further into the creek bed and quarry.

Officials are also monitoring two wastewater force mains that carry about 90% of Carmel’s sewage to its treatment plant; continued erosion or diversion could expose and rupture the pipes, potentially sending raw sewage into the creek or White River. No homes or residents were considered directly at risk from the shifting channel, and officials have stressed that Carmel’s drinking water system remained safe.

Earlier Wednesday morning, Carmel Street Department Commissioner Matt Higginbotham and street team members finalized a concrete and aggregate dam that required more than 400 truckloads of materials (including a load of used sandbags from Rocky Ripple, which helped protect that community over the weekend). The effort reduced more than 90% of the waterflow and provided the opportunity to protect the pipe and allow the Indiana National Guard to begin construction of the secondary dam.

Indiana National Guard pitched in, dispatching UH-60 Huey helicopters to lift and place 73 one-ton sandbags where engineers determined they were needed to further dam and redirect water flow.

Flooding Collides with Gas Tax Suspension

Also important: the flood damage comes as Indiana has gone several months without collecting its normal state gas taxes, removing a major dedicated source of road and bridge revenue.

In general, if the suspension continues into late fall or early winter, Indiana could forego roughly $1 billion in user-fee revenue.

Governor Mike Braun (R), however, made clear on Monday during a disaster response update with Indiana Department of Homeland Security officials, that the flooding has not changed his position on the tax suspension.

Asked whether the state could tap reserves to help repair local roads and whether the disaster could prompt him to reinstate the gas taxes, Governor Braun rejected the latter.

“We’re not going to need to do that,” Gov. Braun asserted. “We’re in excellent shape in terms of reserves …. In a sense, we’ve got rainy day funds. We’re blessed with excess reserves for just things like this.”

The Governor also reiterated that the state and local governments would be replenished for revenue lost during the gas tax suspension. When pressed later about whether Indiana could afford the recovery even without a major federal disaster declaration, in addition to backfilling the road funding already lost, he pointed to about $2 billion in excess reserves. The Governor remains confident that the state can respond to the disaster adequately for Hoosiers while also continuing to pursue his previous plans for the reserves.

“$2 billion in excess reserves goes a long way,” Gov. Braun remarked.

Note, however, that the Governor has made the same assertions with respect to other funding shortfalls and favored new programs and other initiatives, and this funding well is neither infinite nor insulated against a potential economic downturn.

The latest 30-day waiver of the gasoline use tax collection, according to a formal state fiscal estimate required by law and released this week in the Indiana Register, will reduce revenue by approximately $58.5 million to $58.7million. The executive order also waives the gasoline excise tax for 30 days. This will reduce collections by an additional $98.8 million to $99.1 million. The total estimated revenue reduction is between $157.3 million and $157.8 million.

The Braun Administration is also pursuing outside money. Gov. Braun reported that the U.S. Department of Transportation had offered access to its emergency fund and that Indiana was working to secure that assistance. The state is also preparing its request for a major federal disaster declaration, which could unlock additional recovery and response funding for eligible public entities and individuals.

For local roads outside the state highway system, the Governor pledged state assistance as well. “Roads that aren’t maintained by INDOT, that will get down to locals, and we will work with them too,” he promised reporters.

Rebuilding for the Next Flood – and Heat Spikes?

The physical destruction also creates another question: whether Indiana should rebuild damaged roads and bridges as they existed before the flood.

Venkatesh Merwade, Purdue University engineering faculty member notes to Max Lewis of WXIN-TV Fox 59 in Indianapolis that bridges are designed around expected water flows, but the recent flooding exceeded the conditions some structures were built to withstand.

State and local officials and engineers may need to reconsider the assumptions behind damaged infrastructure before rebuilding it, rather than automatically restoring the previous design.

Courtney Page-Tan, an assistant professor at the O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University Indianapolis, specializes in recovery from natural disasters. She tells Lewis that “Before we start thinking about building a new bridge or rebuilding something, we need to take a really close and hard look at the underlying assumptions that are actually going to be used when we’re talking about repairing infrastructure.” Professor Page-Tan “argues against rushing to return badly damaged infrastructure to the status quo, saying it should instead be built to survive in a more extreme environment,” ensuring that it can “withstand similar shocks and stressors in the future,” she says.

BIC’s Gould indicates that the engineering industry has already begun adapting to more severe rainfall. Engineers increasingly recognize that “the one in 1,00-year flood may now be a one-in-a-100-year flood,” he explains, prompting designs that move water away from road surfaces more quickly and give bridges and drainage systems more capacity.

“I would tell you any new project that’s happening today is designed to handle the type of severe storms and rainfall events that we’ve seen in recent weeks,” Gould adds. “It’s some of the older communities that are trying to play catch-up.”

And it’s not just flooding to protect against going forward. The Washington Post published a major story on Thursday about “what has been playing out repeatedly this summer along the nation’s roadways, railroad tracks and bridges: Intense heat is causing surfaces to expand to the point that they break. The failures illustrate how the nation’s transportation networks, built for a different era, increasingly struggle to handle hotter modern-day summers. And this summer has been brutal. July, federal scientists have said, was the single hottest month on record in the contiguous United States,” the Post notes.

Experts cited in the story suggest that road specifications and standards can’t remain static as weather patterns are changing. The paper reports that some asphalt roads “are now dusted with plastic polymers for better rigidity,” while “Several cities have tested out what is essentially white asphalt, to reflect more heat,” and “New Jersey has stopped building concrete roads with asphalt on top due to hotter temperatures, calling it an outdated design,” while railroads are stepping up inspections of metal tracks, which “can bend in extreme summer heat, creating what’s known as a ‘sun kink’ as rails exert force against the ties. That can cause trains to derail.”

Replacing the Hazel Dell bridge, rebuilding washed-out local roads and repairing drainage infrastructure can restore what was lost, and rebuilding them to withstand the next extreme rainfall event and additional climate change prospects could require different designs and potentially more money.