The Dickey Road Bridge is a bascule bridge that carries Dickey Road over the Indiana Harbor Canal in East Chicago, Indiana.
The Dickey Road Bridge is a bascule bridge that carries Dickey Road over the Indiana Harbor Canal in East Chicago, Indiana.
The original bridge at this location was a 360-foot, two-leaf, all-riveted bascule bridge completed in 1917. 1 It was designed by the Scherzer Rolling Lift Bridge Company of Chicago. In a rolling-lift bascule design, the center of rotation shifts as the bridge opens, allowing the load point to move horizontally with the bridge’s center of gravity. The bridge was fabricated and erected by the Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Company for Lake County on a concrete substructure. It was later renovated in 1973 and again in 1981.
Dickey Road was part of State Route 912 until 1983, when the city and state agreed that jurisdiction of the roadway would pass to the City of East Chicago after reconstruction was completed. 2 The only portion that remained under state jurisdiction was the bridge. Reconstruction of the Dickey Road Bridge began in July 1990 under Superior Construction Company of Gary at a cost of $12 million. Once the project was finished, the bridge was also to be handed over to city control.
That transfer became the subject of a dispute because Indiana law required bridges in Lake County to be maintained through the county’s cumulative bridge fund unless they were located on state routes. 2 In November 1992, East Chicago urged Lake County to provide money to operate the new bridge, but the county did not respond and had not budgeted funds for its operation in 1993. 3 Operating the span required a bridge tender on duty at all times, at an annual cost of about $100,000, including four full-time employees and one part-time employee. 2 3 The county argued that the 1983 agreement between the city and state obligated East Chicago to accept jurisdiction and maintenance responsibility for the bridge. 3
On December 16, 1992, an agreement was reached that allowed the bridge to open by the end of the year. 3 Under that arrangement, the city agreed to assume the costs temporarily while continuing to seek financial assistance from the state and county. Even so, the bridge remained inoperable well into 1993. 4 The current plate-girder, double-leaf bascule bridge with steel-stringer approach spans opened later in the year. 3
Details
- State: Indiana
- Route: Dickey Road
- Status: Active (Automobile)
- Type: Double-Leaf Bascule
- Total Length: 360' (1917); 387' (1992)
- Main Span Length: 146' (1917); 164' (1992)
- Spans: 71'6"×3 (1917)
- Deck Width: 51'8" (1992)
- Roadway Width: 39' (1917)
Sources
- “Indiana State Highway Bridge Number 912-45-3624D.” Indiana State Historic Architectural and Archaeological Research Database (SHAARD), Indiana Department of Natural Resources, Division of Historic Preservation and Archaeology, 1984.
- “E.C. engineer: Dickey Road bridge to stay closed until maintenance issue is resolved.” The Times, 1 Nov. 1992, p. B6.
- Holecek, Andrea. “Agreement to reopen Dickey Road bridge.” The Times, 17 Dec. 1992, B8.
- “Reader accuses officials of ignoring bridge problem.” The Times, 7 Mar. 1993, p. I3.