Avon, Indiana, is a suburb of Indianapolis located about 13 miles west of downtown. One of the major roads in Avon and Hendricks County, Dan Jones Road, runs parallel to Indianapolis International Airport. To accommodate growth and improve mobility in the area, the county is widening Dan Jones Road from two to four lanes over a 4.5-mile stretch.
The project was divided into five phases, each with its own budget, schedule, and contracting team. Hendricks County and general contractor Superior Construction are currently working on the second phase.
The project involves widening a 200-foot-long bridge while maintaining traffic and coordinating work over an active rail yard. Construction on the bridge began in spring 2025 and is on schedule for completion in April 2027.
In phase one, Superior constructed a new two-lane bridge alongside the existing bridge. Traffic then shifted to the new bridge during phase two, allowing Superior to demolish the superstructure comprising the old bridge’s upper sections. Crews are constructing a new superstructure on the existing bridge substructure to match the newly built bridge.
The new bridge, according to Superior’s website, will have a 6-foot, 8-inch-wide sidewalk on one side and a 4-foot, 4-inch-wide sidewalk on the other. The new multi-use path will connect with an existing path along the northern section of Dan Jones Road.
The improvements are intended to address significant congestion along the corridor, which carries more than 18,600 vehicles per day.
“Currently, there are bottlenecks as traffic approaches the bridge throughout the day, particularly during the morning and afternoon rush hour,” Superior Construction Project Manager Ryan Boyle said. “When school is in session, rush hour traffic can get backed up for around a mile. And if there’s an accident, the backup could go on even further.”
Most of the traffic is local, but the route also carries a substantial number of semi-trucks traveling to and from the CSX rail yard beneath the bridge.
Building over an active rail yard has created the project’s most significant challenge, according to Boyle. The yard includes six tracks and handles up to 60 trains on a typical day. Boyle said the proximity to the rail operations has required extensive communication and flexibility from both Superior and CSX.
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“One of the questions that we asked CSX early on at the pre-con was, ‘How many trains are there a day, and is there a schedule?’ And the answer was no,” Boyle said. “There’s no schedule, and there’s no set number of trains daily. They come in, they’re loaded with cargo, and then they pull out. Having to work around that and working with CSX has made coordination between us one of the biggest factors in this job.”
Superior initially considered performing some work at night, but train movements occur around the clock as rail cars are continuously moved through the yard. Over the course of the project, however, the team has observed that Mondays generally experience less train traffic.
“The biggest thing is the coordination between both parties to make sure everything is done safely,” Boyle said. “The coordination entails us — the superintendent and the project personnel — and CSX personnel coming together and saying, ‘Hey, you know, here we're going to need this outage or this window to set beams.’ It takes weeks of planning, because they have windows that they also have to meet.”
The safety element requires the team to work with CSX’s flaggers and yardmaster to ensure everyone is aware of when trains are entering the construction area.
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Despite the challenging circumstances, several factors have helped keep the project on schedule. One can be summed up by a Superior Construction mantra: “Plan the work, work the plan.”
“To keep this project on schedule, we work as a team to find solutions and opportunities to scheme things a little differently than we originally planned,” Boyle said. “As we approach an operation, we consider whether we can re-scheme the operation to reduce the duration to get it completed.”
Boyle pointed to an example from the project’s first phase. While excavating for a mechanically stabilized earth (MSE) wall, the team widened an embankment and moved the excavated material around the bridge to the site of the next phase. The material ultimately provided about 80 percent of the required fill, allowing much of that work to be completed before phase two began.
The team has also been focused on identifying and communicating potential issues early, so they can resolve them before they escalate.
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“If we're standing around waiting for the railroad, that would cost us a lot of money and waste time,” Boyle said. “We identify opportunities in advance with the owner and the owner’s representative about how to resolve issues and move forward in an effective manner.”
Boyle added that the railroad has been as flexible as possible and has been willing to work with Superior and the team.
“We have to be ready to work at a moment’s notice, because they could call us and say, ‘Hey, and once this train clears, you guys have an hour window,’” Boyle said. “We have to hit those windows. We can't miss them, because that may be our only one for the day.”
That scenario occurred when the team was setting beams.
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Poor soil conditions created other challenges for the team.
“Due to the existing subsurface or poor soil conditions below the existing ground level, we installed rammed aggregate piers to reinforce the soil in order to construct MSE walls,” Boyle said.
The process involved drilling a 30-inch-diameter hole 15 feet deep with a large auger attached to an excavator. Once the team reached a suitable depth, they dropped about 4 feet of stone in the hole and ram compacted the stone.
“We had to meet a certain compaction requirement, and the aggregate piers are serving as additional support because the ground, the subsurface condition, was so poor it couldn't withstand the amount of weight and bearing capacity that we were putting on it,” Boyle said.
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At its highest point, the roadway had to be elevated 30 feet above the existing ground level.
The existing roadway and bridge remained open to traffic during construction of the new bridge. This required the team to dig down more than 15 feet right next to live traffic.
To do this safely, the team constructed temporary shoring. Crews drove a steel H-pile 30 to 35 feet deep and then installed hardwood lagging to support the existing embankment where traffic was using the roadway. In total, the project required approximately 7,000 square feet of temporary shoring.
Superior’s Mid-South office is located just 20 minutes from the project area. The fourth-generation, family-owned and -operated heavy civil contractor specializes in complex infrastructure and transportation projects and has completed numerous bridge projects throughout Indiana.
Boyle described this project as Superior’s “bread and butter.” The general contractor was also attracted to the project because of the challenge involved in building over the railroad.
“Between the challenge of the build and other elements, we felt this project was a good opportunity,” Boyle said.
As the $18 million Dan Jones Bridge project nears completion, it serves as an example of how collaboration, flexibility, and technological know-how can enable teams to overcome challenges. Upon completion, travelers on and near the Dan Jones Bridge will experience improved traffic flow and substantially fewer back-ups.
- Owner: Hendricks County, Indiana
- General Contractor: Superior Construction, Portage, Indiana
- Designer: Egis Group, Indianapolis, Indiana
- Engineer: American Structurepoint Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana
