The Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) plans to close State Road 46 southeast of Columbus next week for up to five months.

INDOT Spokesman Harry Maginity says that crews will demolish and rebuild the three-span bridge over Fishers Fork Creek, located two miles west of State Road 9. He says that a detour will route motorists around the closure via State Road, State Road 750 at North Vernon and State Road 3.

Maginity notes that Milestone, INDOT’s contractor for this nearly $1.4 million project, has scheduled operations to begin next March 21, weather permitting. He says that a new slab-top superstructure, measuring 81-feet in length with 44-feet of clear roadway side-to-side, will replace the existing concrete beam bridge over Fishers Fork.

Maginity says that the contract calls for the work to be finished by August 19.