Signatory Agencies:

• Federal Highway Administration, Indiana Division Office (FHWA-IN)
• Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP)
• Indiana State Historic Preservation Officer (INSHPO)
• Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT)

Involved Organizations/Agencies:

• Indiana Department of Natural Resources-Division of Historic Preservation and Archaeology (IDNR-DHPA)
• Indiana Association of County Highway Engineers and Supervisors (IACHES)
• Indiana Association of County Commissioners (IACC)
• Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana (HLFI)
• Historic Spans Task Force
• Senator Richard G. Lugar's Office

BACKGROUND

Historic bridges in the State of Indiana are highly treasured for their cultural value. Historic bridges are constructed of a variety of materials, including metal, timber, masonry, and concrete. Over time, many of these historic resources have been replaced with modern bridges capable of carrying today's heavier and wider vehicles. Many of the historic bridges were built when the only type of vehicles using roads were horse-drawn carriages or very light passenger vehicles.

The timber covered bridges are among the most rare type of historic bridge in Indiana. There are fewer than 100 of these types of bridges left in Indiana. Many counties that still have historic covered bridges utilize them as tourist draws in annual festivals. Some fear that other types of historic bridges, such as the metal truss, concrete, and masonry bridges, will become as rare as the timber covered bridge population. It is believed that over the past 10-15 years, approximately two-thirds of the metal truss bridges have been replaced and are no longer extant.

County governments own most of the historic bridges that are still in place today. County governments have limited resources for maintenance, rehabilitation, and replacement of their bridges. As a result, county governments utilize their bridges for longer periods of time and thus own a larger percentage of bridges that are considered historic. Still, the Indiana Department of Transportation, city governments and some other state agencies own a smaller share of the historic bridges that are still extant.

There are legislative programs and state policies that encourage and fund preservation of historic bridges. The Highway Bridge Replacement and Rehabilitation Program provides funding to improve deficient bridges. The National Historic Covered Bridge Preservation (NHCBP) Program was established by Section 1224 of the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21). The program provides funding to assist the States in their efforts to preserve, rehabilitate, or restore the Nation's historic covered bridges. From 2000-2003, there have been 13 historic covered bridges in Indiana that have received funds from the NHCBP program.

Section 144(o) of Title 23 of the United States Code includes provisions to encourage bridge preservation if an historic bridge is to be demolished. The historic bridge must be made available for donation to a State, locality or a responsible private entity provided they agree to maintain the bridge and assume all of the future legal and financial responsibility for the bridge. The amount available for the preservation of the bridge under this section cannot exceed the cost of demolition.

The Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 first established Transportation Enhancement (TE) funding activities, and continued through the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21). TE activities are a sub-component of the Surface Transportation Program. The intent of the TE program is to improve transportation experience in and through local communities. Through the Indiana Department of Transportation's (INDOT) TE program, on an annual basis, historic preservation projects, including preservation of historic bridges, are awarded a portion of the TE funding available. Between 1999-2002, INDOT has awarded funding to counties, cities, and state agencies to preserve 35 historic bridges.

In some cases, owners of historic bridges propose to replace the bridge and intend to use federal funds for construction of their project. If at the conclusion of the federal environmental process the decision is to replace the historic bridge, the INDOT has a policy that gives TE funding priority to any Indiana local government to preserve the historic bridge, either at its existing location or at a new location. Indiana non-profit organizations may also participate in the program if they are able to find a local government willing to sponsor them and administer the federal funds for the project. INDOT has also established a bridge marketing website to increase awareness of historic bridges that may be available for preservation, either at their existing location or at a new location. Each bridge that is proposed for replacement, if federal funds are to be used, is posted to the marketing website at the beginning of the environmental process for the project.

Clearly, there are a number of programs and policies in place that have encouraged and resulted in historic bridge preservation in Indiana. However most stakeholders involved with historic bridge projects recognize that it would be beneficial to have a more structured historic bridge preservation program in the State. Many times, preservation organizations and historic bridge owners become frustrated with the process when an historic bridge is proposed for replacement with Federal-Aid funds. For Federal-Aid funded projects, the Federal Highway Administration must ensure that the requirements of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 are met, including completion of the Section 106 process. At times, the process is lengthy, which translates into higher costs for the bridge owner, and the preservation organizations are disturbed that more bridges are not preserved after the process has been completed.

The Section 106 regulations allow a programmatic approach for federal agencies to satisfy their Section 106 responsibilities. Some states, for example Vermont, have executed Section 106 Programmatic Agreements for their historic bridges. During the winter and spring of 2002, Dr. James Cooper, a local bridge historian, and Mr. Steve Weintraut, an engineering consultant, approached the Indiana State Historic Preservation Officer (INSHPO), the Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana (HLFI), the Indiana Association of County Commissioners (IACC), the Indiana Association of County Engineers and Supervisors (IACHES), the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT), and the Indiana Division of the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA-IN) regarding the creation of a historic bridge program in Indiana. The preservation community and the county organizations were both interested in pursuing the concept.

In the fall of 2002, the FHWA-IN established a task group to create a historic bridge program in Indiana. The task group is comprised of representatives from FHWA, the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP), INDOT, INSHPO, the Indiana Division of Natural Resources-Division of Historic Preservation and Archaeology, the Historic Spans Task Group, IACC, IACHES, and Senator Lugar's office. The group is working on the terms of the Section 106 programmatic agreement, which will be the framework for the historic bridge program. Once the ACHP, INSHPO, INDOT, and FHWA-IN agree upon the terms in the programmatic agreement, the agreement will govern how Section 106 requirements are satisfied for projects covered in the agreement. Conceptually, the historic bridge program will focus preservation efforts on the best examples of Indiana's historic bridges and streamline the Section 106 process for those bridges that are significant historically, but are not the finest examples in the State.

An ongoing and parallel activity to the programmatic agreement is the survey of historic bridges in Indiana. The Local Technical Assistance Program (LTAP) - Purdue University is working on the first phase of the project, collecting data on bridges at the Local, County, and State levels. INDOT has issued a professional services bulletin to hire a consultant to analyze the data collected by LTAP and make eligibility recommendations to the FHWA-IN and INSHPO. The final survey will be used to determine where preservation efforts will best be focused.

PUBLIC INVOLVEMENT PLAN OBJECTIVES

Four public involvement objectives are identified in this plan and a series of proposed activities are presented that will help the FHWA-IN meet these objectives. At any time, if members of the public identify a specific activity or tool that will help them participate in the process, we ask that you let the FHWA-IN know. Public involvement will help the FHWA-IN develop a successful Section 106 programmatic agreement and historic bridge program, a comprehensive historic bridge survey and database, and satisfy the legal and regulatory public involvement requirements for creating a programmatic agreement.

The objectives of this public involvement plan are to:

1. Provide opportunities for public participation that will effectively incorporate community concerns into the decision-making process.
2. Provide consistent, regular and timely information about the Section 106 programmatic agreement for bridges and the historic bridge survey.
3. Meet statutory requirements of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 regarding public notice and opportunities for public involvement.
4. Evaluate the effectiveness of this community involvement plan and make changes accordingly.

Public involvement will be continuous throughout the development of the Programmatic Agreement and the Survey process. However, there are three milestone events that will require formal public comment periods:

1. Public review of historic bridge survey data and eligibility recommendations. Views of the public will be sought to determine if any potential historic bridges were missed in the survey, to determine the public's view of a bridges historic significance, and seek additional historic information from the public that may not be readily available to the researchers.
2. Public review of the draft programmatic agreement prior to its execution. It will be important for the public to understand that the Section 106 Programmatic Agreement will take the place of the standard Section 106 process established in the 36 CFR Part 800 regulations and provide comments on the proposed stipulations contained in the draft agreement.
3. The draft programmatic agreement will include the creation of bridge management plan(s). The management plan(s) will identify the historic resources preservation efforts will be focused on and those historic resources that will likely be replaced. The public will be offered the opportunity to provide input on the management plan(s).

The following section identifies public outreach activities that may be used to help the FHWA-IN satisfy the objectives of this plan. Below are some of the public involvement tools that may be helpful for keeping the public informed as the agreement is developed and are options the FHWA-IN will consider.

FHWA-IN will respond in a timely and appropriate manner to concerns and issues raised by members of the public or other stakeholders during the development of the programmatic agreement. The FHWA welcomes feedback on the public involvement plan and activities, and will update the plan as needed.

• Historic Bridge Program and Survey Progress: There are a number of opportunities for keeping stakeholders informed of progress being made in the historic bridge program, through formal presentation or providing brochures for distribution. The following is a list of some activities available for keeping interested stakeholders up-to-date on the historic bridge program activities:

  • Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana Affiliate Council (Fall)
  • MPO Council Meeting (Monthly)
  • Rural Planning Organization (Monthly)
  • Indiana Planning Association (Spring and Fall Conference)
  • State Preservation Conference-O'Brien Conference (October 2003)
  • Purdue Road School (March)
  • County Commissioners Annual Meeting (December)
  • IACHES Annual Meeting (Winter/Summer Conference)
  • LTAP County Bridge Conference (January)
  • INDOT District Meetings (Summer/Fall)
  • Indiana Association of Cities and Towns
  • Indiana Association of Counties
  • Covered Bridge Festival in Parke County
  • ITE Meetings
  • Consulting Engineers meetings

• Brochures: The FHWA-IN will create a brochure that discusses why a historic bridge programmatic agreement is being pursued, the historic bridge survey work being done, when the key public involvement points will be in the process, where individuals or organizations may go for more information, and where individuals or organizations may supply comments at any time during the process. The FHWA-IN will provide brochures for the above scheduled meetings and to any other group requesting them.

• Presentations: Upon request, the FHWA-IN will present a status update of the survey and programmatic agreement to any group, as staff is available.

• Public involvement at key milestones: FHWA-IN has identified three key milestones where public involvement is critical. The milestones are:

  1. When there is substantial agreement among the signatories to the programmatic agreement;
  2. When the historic bridge survey eligibility recommendations have been prepared for INSHPO and FHWA-IN review;
  3. When the bridge management plan(s) are completed.

• The public will be provided opportunities to provide input at each of these milestones, which are before any final decisions are made on the programmatic agreement, bridge eligibility determinations, and establishment of bridge management plan(s). The information may be made available publicly by Internet, newspaper media, and regularly scheduled local government meetings. For those counties with higher densities of historic bridges, and those that choose to participate in the program, public involvement should be more focused.

• Web Sites: The FHWA-IN will maintain a website to share the current version of the draft programmatic agreement. As the historic bridge survey is developed, information will also be posted to the website regarding its availability. The website may be found at the following address:

• http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/indiv/hbpgmhpg.htm

The INDOT's website marketing historic bridges may be found at the following site:

• http://www.state.in.us/dot/div/envassess/bridges/

Information on the Highway Bridge Replacement and Rehabilitation Program may be found at the following FHWA website:

• http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/bridge/hbrrp.htm

Information on the National Historic Bridge Preservation Program may be found at the following FHWA website:

• http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/bridge/covered.htm

WHAT'S NEXT IN THE PROCESS

This section of the public involvement plan identifies proposed actions, the products delivered, the lead agency and the approximate schedule. This action plan will be updated periodically as new information about activities and timeframes is identified, and as we receive feedback from the stakeholders and the public.