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History of the Bell Ford Bridge

In early September, the project development team visits the site in Fishers where the pedestrian bridge was relocated over Fall Creek. Members are INDOT Senior Project Manager Jennifer Beck (from left), City of Fishers Director of Engineering Hatem Mekky, INDOT Project Manager Associate Kim Szewczak, Hamilton County Highway Director Brad Davis, and INDOT Area Engineer Kurt Courtney.

It’s only fitting that INDOT combined forces with other agencies to help install the world’s only combination Post truss bridge.

In early September, the historic Bell Ford Bridge was moved to its permanent home at Geist Park in Fishers.

This project was unique in a variety of ways,” said Greenfield District Senior Project Manager Jennifer Beck, who along with Greenfield District Project Manager Associate Kim Szewczak and Greenfield District Construction Area Engineer Kurt Courtney worked with the Indianapolis Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO), Hamilton County Highway Department, Hamilton County Parks and Recreation Department, and city of Fishers to make this happen.

A truss is the joining of relatively small structural components into a series of interconnected triangles to form a load-bearing superstructure. A Post truss, invented in 1863 by Simeon Post, featured tapered, inclined posts, with the top end one-half panel closer to mid-span than the bottom. This enabled the Post truss to achieve a longer span with less material weight than other bridges of the period but required complex joints and relatively elaborate castings.

In 1869, the Bell Ford Bridge was opened in Jackson County, northwest of Seymour, passing over the East Fork of the White River (roof and siding were added after 1876). Bridge components of wood and iron are why it was considered a combination truss — a significant transitional feature in the eventual development of all-metal trusses. Today, it’s the only combination Post truss bridge in the world and one of only three surviving Post truss bridges of any material (the other two are all metal).

After 100 years of use of the bridge for vehicular traffic and people/animal crossings, vehicles were banned from the two-span, 325-foot expanse in 1969 because age had made the bridge unsafe. In 1999, the western portion was destroyed in a storm. Down to just one span (2004 photo, right), the bridge was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2005. But in January 2006, the remaining half plunged into the river with many components lying against its former support beam.

A bridge historian and engineer retrieved the bridge pieces and stored them in a Jackson County barn. In 2018, Hamilton County collaborated with Jackson County to acquire the bridge, storing the pieces in an unused wing of the Hamilton County Jail in Noblesville. By 2021, firm plans were in place for the bridge to be reconstructed into a pedestrian bridge over Fall Creek at the southern end of Geist Park.

“But it was unclear how much of the original material would be salvageable, so a pre-bid meeting was held in 2023 where interested contractors inspected the material before placing a bid to determine what they felt would be reusable,” said Beck, who noted that INDOT provided oversight for the federal-aid project. “Because only a handful of bidders can do this specialized type of work, the project cost was significantly over the original estimate, and it took three tries to sell this project at letting. Hamilton County was committed to this historic mitigation project and was able to approve the additional funding out of local dollars, as the MPO was maxed out with its participation at $2.77 million for the overall $7.46 million construction cost.”

The bridge was reconstructed at Fishers AgriPark, one-fourth mile north of Geist Park, using original and replacement pieces. Almost 90% of the original iron castings from the 1860s were used. Additionally, about 40% of the primary truss members were made of either partially or entirely of the original timber.

Beck noted that another unique aspect was the timing of the greenway on both sides of the one-span pedestrian bridge.

“The city of Fishers also had a federal-aid project to construct the Geist Greenway, which in its entirety will connect 96th Street to 131st Street on the east side of town,” said Beck. “Although there were challenges in aligning the schedules of these projects to ensure we didn’t have one built too far in advance of the other, the team was able to get it done, as the majority of the pedestrian path, from 104th to 126th streets, was recently completed.”

Although the pedestrian bridge, which parallels the Florida Road bridge over Fall Creek, was moved to its final spot in early September, construction will not be completed until 2025. Plans call for a more durable synthetic roof that mimics the original cedar shake roof. Additionally, the bridge will feature clear polycarbonate siding to model the original open-air structure.

This blog is originally written by INDOT.