Closing a road was a much cheaper solution to a bridge issue in Randolph County, Ind., than replacing the bridge. Tom Chalfant, a farmer and county commissioner, explains that’s because the century-old bridge is designated as a historic bridge by the Indiana Department of Transportation. According to Chalfant, meeting state and federal guidelines to replace a historic bridge costs several times more than building a new structure.

There are hundreds of bridges with historic designations in Indiana. Resolving the issue isn’t as simple as passing a state law. The historic-bridge issue was discussed on IndianaPrairieFarmer.com in mid-April.

Franklin Furr, Winamac, Ind., a former district conservationist with the Natural Resources Conservation Service, has an idea. Whether it’s practical or not remains to be seen. But his response sparked our thinking. Are there creative, out-of-the-box ways to resolve this issue?

Reader’s comments

“I read the article about why some rural bridges cannot be replaced quickly,” Furr begins. “A thought for the counties involved with these historic bridges would be to consider purchasing some right of way on one side of the bridge or the other and rerouting the road around the historic bridge. This may be a way to get around the problem and not bother the historic bridge.

“I realize this is probably something new to some people, but it might be a solution that could work and solve the problem. Maybe some of the people have already thought of this solution and have proceeded to go forward with a plan like this.

“I realize that the landowner that is losing the land for the new bridge may not be happy, but then they will probably get over it.”

Furr knows something about losing land. His family also has land in Oklahoma and Texas.

“We lost a sliver of land along a highway in Oklahoma and weren’t enthused about having to move the field fence,” he recalls. “But we were compensated for the acreage. It is not a situation that you really like, but sometimes life does not give us all the things we really like. But if it is useful and helpful to many others that are neighbors, it might even prove beneficial to the landowner giving up the land for the new roadway and bridge.”

On the flip side, Furr says in their operations in Oklahoma and Texas, they’ve also been the ones inconvenienced by a closed bridge or road, requiring them to go several miles out of the way. He adds that it’s no fun to be inconvenienced in that manner either. That’s what’s happening now in Indiana, at least with the closure of the road due to the faulty bridge in Randolph County that was featured in the article.

Is Furr’s idea a perfect solution? No. It may depend on how much land a neighbor must sacrifice — but be paid for, of course — to allow for the solution to work. But it’s an idea, a place to start. Perhaps some creative thinking and cooperation can help communities come up with a solution rather than waiting on state and federal governments to fix this problem.

If the COVID-19 pandemic has taught us anything, perhaps that’s it. When people put their heads together, even over the internet or phone, they can find innovative ways to do things, rather than just “the way it’s always been done.”

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