Source: ENR Midwest

By Annemarie Mannion

It’s first things first for construction of the Interstate 69 Ohio River Crossing (I-69 ORX), a nearly $1.4-billion design-build project being built in three phases. It will eventually result in a new bridge over the Ohio River connecting Evansville, Ind., and Henderson, Ky.

Construction of the river bridge is not expected to start until late 2026 or early 2027, but it would not be possible without $202 million in approach work being done in Indiana and $193.5 million being performed in Kentucky.

The Indiana work consists of building the southbound lanes of I-69 to provide all-weather access to the river, making it possible to construct the river bridge. The approach project entails construction of a floodplain bridge; an I-69 southbound bridge over the Ohio River floodplain and Eagle Creek floodplain; and embankment islands on each end of the bridges.

The work being done in Kentucky includes improvements to I-69 in Henderson between KY 425 and US 60 and is being managed by the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC).

One Piece of a Network
“This is part of an overall goal nationally to have a freight corridor that connects Canada and Mexico to the Midwest,” says Ryan Cummins, vice president, national transportation director for Indianapolis-based American Structurepoint, the project engineer. “The goals locally are to provide interstate cross-river connectivity between the states. The twin bridges that currently connect the states are very dated, very narrow and their ability to handle peak traffic is very poor.”

When completed, the three bridges in the Indiana section are designed to accommodate roughly 24,000 vehicles per day.

In addition to American Structurepoint, the design-build team on the Indiana project includes the prime contractor, ORX Constructors, a joint venture between Walsh Construction and Traylor Bros., and Prestress Services Industries, the fabricator of the beams.

One of the three bridges being constructed is a 3,911-ft-long, 21-span floodplain bridge extending north from the Indiana-Kentucky state line. The two others are ramp bridges to the long approach and embankments that tie into I-69 on the north side.

The concrete bridges are situated on substructures supported by pile footings and have a hammerhead column configuration.

“We have a four-beam girder line, cast in place, with a concrete deck. The beams themselves are precast, prestressed lightweight concrete,” says Vince Alley, project manager at Walsh Construction. “The beams are long and very complex. They are something that’s not often seen in Indiana or the Midwest.”

The beams for the ramp bridges are a mix of depths: 48 in., 60 in. and 72 in. Lengths vary from 125 ft to 163 ft.

Prestressed concrete was chosen over steel for all of the beams—the measurements on the main bridge are 181 ft long and 188 ft long and 7 ft deep—during early planning.

“Vince [Alley] and his team decided that prestressed concrete beams costed out better than the steel options,” says Troy Jessop, American Structurepoint bridge group leader. “And that’s not just the beams. That’s the combination of the substructure, foundations—the whole package together.”

David Szydlik, vice president of sales for Prestress Services Industries, says placing the concrete in the beam formwork with approximately 80 of the embedded, seven-wire steel strands tensioned within it, was a challenge.

“We had to use two very large cranes,” he says. “The beams are heavy—101 tons—so we had two 300-ton cranes, one for each end of the beam to pick it up and then set it in place. We had to plan in advance to make sure we had the right equipment to do the job.”

The weight of one beam is roughly the weight of 13 to 14 school buses.

“There was a lot of coordination that you normally wouldn’t have with the fabricator if the beam was a standard length,” Alley notes. “We [specifically] designed the strands in those prestressed beams.”

Tatman Sims & Pedigo, headquartered in Bloomington, Ind., set the beams.

Szydlik says his company got involved early in the process to identify the most efficient and economical beam design.

“It started during the proposal phase while we were pursuing the job—in 2023,” he says. “Once we got our rough designs, we figured prestressed concrete could work. Then, after we were the successful low bidder, we continued to design and refine it to make it happen.”

Alley estimates the project used more than 80,000 linear ft of piling, or about 15 miles. The primary pile type was a closed-ended, 18-in.-dia pipe pile. Lengths vary from 75 ft to 100 ft.

The foundation of the longest bridge required a total of 36,000 ft of piles, each 18 in. in diameter, more than 10,000 cu yd of concrete for the bridge structure and 2.8 million lb of reinforcement.

Floodplain Challenges
Working in a floodplain that has flooded twice since the project began in 2023 is another challenge.

“We did a lot of historical research to see what happens in this floodplain,” Alley says. “We found that, on average, the site will flood significantly twice a year. So we planned that into our scheduling and pricing and our work planning.”

“One of our biggest challenges is just the rain,” adds Matt Bullock, senior project manager for the Indiana Dept. of Transportation (INDOT), the project owner. “We were fighting moisture in the soil and getting things dry in order to be able to compact the soil at the right moisture content. It was a struggle.”

The team set targets for appropriate moisture levels on three major embankments before they could start compacting them and lock in the soil hard enough to pass testing.

Because the site is so close to the river, the team also found different soil types.

“Anytime you poke a hole in the ground, you don’t know what you’re going to find,” says Clint Scherzer, area engineer for INDOT. “Sometimes there are sand layers that are thick and some are thin. Sometimes you get more silty material, which impacts how the piles perform, especially with the liquefiable layer.

“Because of the sheer amount of pile we put in—20 piers with 25 piles each in a small footprint for this foundation—whenever we drive this many piles in the ground, it’s actually densifying the soils around it,” Scherzer adds. “So, for the first one, the soils are loose, but by the time we drive 25 of them in the ground, it’s tightening up everything around all those piles.”

Bullock notes that “piles cost a lot of money. So the more shallow they can go [in more rigid soil], the less money you spend on the pile.”
To cope with flooding, ORX Constructors built a haul road about 3 ft higher than the existing farm field. They also rented property on higher ground to be used as a laydown site for work such as building overhangs and other items that could be prefabricated and then brought onto the worksite.

“We planned out certain work we could do during the floods so we can stay productive and not send people home,” Alley says. “We want to keep our people working.”

Fortunately, the site doesn’t flood instantaneously, so the team was able to monitor conditions. “Every morning we look at the hydrograph, even when it’s not raining, because we’re not sure if they’re going to release water at a lock and dam above us,” Alley says.

To accommodate the large cranes used to place the beams, the team built large pads about 12 ft higher than the farm field to prevent them from being flooded.

“A large crane takes a week to assemble,” Alley says. “Even a small crane takes about three to four days. So instead of disassembling and then having to reassemble them, we built large earth pads that we could put the cranes on, above what we assumed would be the highest flood level. It was very successful.”

He estimates that two major floods delayed the project by six weeks, but those delays were worked into the schedule ahead of time.

“That’s just part of working in a floodplain,” Alley says.

Earthquake Resiliency
The bridges are within the New Madrid Fault, so they are designed to withstand two levels of seismic demand: a 1,000-year event for functional evaluation and a 2,500-year event.

“We did some complex modeling for earthquakes, and that gave our designers some out-of-the-box challenges to work on,” Cummins says.

The bridge needed specially designed bearings and expansion joints so it could safely move during an earthquake. The long wingwalls were built with wire faces to handle the extra pressure from seismic forces.

Alley says the seismic portion of the project also included a lot of work by the geotechnical engineer S&ME.

“It was very complex. They had a lot of challenges with liquefied soils and everything,” he says. “Our designers worked with them through that. We had to have strong geotechnical expertise for that.”

Communication is Key
Alley attributes the project’s success to co-locating in an office with INDOT.

“We are in the same office as their representatives,” he says. “So whenever something comes up, I just walk right next door. I don’t even have to pick up the phone. I am a firm believer in face-to-face communication.”

They also do a weekly hot topics meeting.

“If there’s anything anyone needs to get off their chest and that we need to attack as a team, we raise it there,” he says. “We have really open, honest dialogue, and we’ve built enough trust between all parties that we feel comfortable saying, ‘Hey, I’ve got an issue here. Can you help me?’ and vice versa.”

While a design has not been chosen, a tied-arch bridge and a cable-stay bridge have been prequalified for the new four-lane bridge across the Ohio River. A design-build contractor is expected to be chosen by late 2026, with construction to start shortly thereafter. Additional bridge types may be considered during the procurement phase of the project through the alternative technical concept process. Construction is scheduled to begin in 2027, and project completion is targeted for Oct. 31, 2031.

Jessop says the Indiana approach project has yielded many opportunities for his staff to gain experience.

“They get a magnitude of years of experience off a project like this—something that most designers wouldn’t get in four or five years,” he says. “I’ve already seen from what they’ve learned that we are able to elevate them and use them on higher design-builds, which is very rewarding to see.”