A Bartholomew County bridge over Flat Rock River will be closed indefinitely.

Bartholomew County Highway Engineer Danny Hollander told the county commissioners this morning that Bridge 73 on County Road 900N between roads 200E and 300E will need to be closed indefinitely. This came after a report from bridge inspectors found that rust on the steel-iron truss bridge had gotten so severe that travel on the span is dangerous.

Hollander said the bridge was originally built in 1910 and the last major renovation of the bridge was more than 30 years ago. He said an engineering firm is looking at the bridge to determine whether it can be repaired, but he said it is not looking promising because of the way it is constructed makes patching very difficult.

Hollander said that the county is limited in what it can do to replace the bridge as it is considered a historically significant structure by state officials.

Barricades went up this morning closing the bridge. County officials say that you will need to take another route.

Photo courtesy of Chris Light at en.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons