Chunks of concrete fall from bridge during morning rush hour, road closed

Indianapolis, Indiana – According to the Department of Public Works for the better part of the morning, the northbound lanes of Madison Ave. just south of Raymond Street were closed. Turns out, chunks of concrete fell into traffic.

Jean Fannon lives right down the street and says she will be looking for another road to get downtown. “I will not go that way now. No, I will avoid it” Fannon said.

The concrete shower that rained down onto traffic this morning had drivers slamming on their brakes. The owner of this car was rear-ended as he attempted to avoid the slowdown and the concrete.

“I’m not an engineer, so I don’t know how it needs to be fixed but it definitely needs to be fixed,” Kai McLaughlin said. He lives in a neighborhood close to Madison Ave. and has been concerned about the older bridges on the south side of town.

“Well, I noticed a lot of bridges in the area are missing concrete, so I know it has fallen and you know, [the] drive through here every day worries me, ya know. Is that going [to] fall on me or somebody else,” McLaughlin said.

According to Purdue University professor Julio Ramirez, who has spent his professional life in the study of concrete, it starts to fail when the reinforcement is exposed to water, vibration, and other environmental factors, like Indiana winters. Inspections are key to the life of the bridge.

“But if you don’t provide it with adequate maintenance and inspection, then it can lead to situations where the deterioration reaches a point where intervention is required,” Ramirez said.

The Raymond Street bridge over Madison Ave. is scheduled for repair work starting in two weeks, the city said.

The city has almost two million dollars set aside for repairs, according to the Department of Public Works website.