Flood Destroyed Road at Blue Woods Creek near White River in Carmel, IN

(Satellite)

Central and Southeastern Indiana have experienced a 1000-year flood.

Actually, the bridges might be OK. It was the road embankments on both sides that got wiped out. Since the median is filled in, I can't tell if the girders for this bridge were steel or concrete.

WISH-TV posted

Hazel Dell Parkway in Carmel has been completely destroyed by floodwaters from the White River. It washed away fill materials behind the bridge abutment, creating sinkholes, undermining the approach and causing the roadway to crack in half.

(Provided Photo/City of Carmel)

Kevin D. McLeaster: Correct Headline example : "The bridge over Cool Creek on Hazel Dell Parkway has failed due to the to floodwaters from the White River."

Jeff B Bowers: Kevin D. McLeaster yes. Things are bad enough without media sensationalizing to get more clicks. The bridge was destroyed. Not the entirety of Hazel Dell.

Craig E Capehart: I think the Hazel Dell bridge is over Cool Creek, not White River. 🤔

Marilyn Naden Behrman: Craig E Capehart, yes, water from the White River is filling up Cool Creek, which is then running backwards and filling up the nearby Martin Marietta quarry. The rush of this water is causing the erosion and the failure of the roadway.

Jennie Thompson: If the quarry had not filled with water the river would have overflowed the levy in Broad Ripple.

[Comments kept correcting Cool Creek as Blue Woods Creek.]

Because of the angle the creek makes with the road, Blue Woods Creek is the correct creek. That creek has a small watershed, so the bridge is probably more than adequate for the normal flow in the creek. But it was not adequate for the backflow. It looks like the equipment in the quarry is on the upper levels. I wonder how full the quarry got. Did it occur to the engineers who designed the bridge that there would be a backflow during a flood? Or did they consider the backflow, but did not realize how big the backflow could be?

Satellite

Update:

Black Indy LIVE posted:

Carmel is now facing another potentially catastrophic consequence of Indiana’s historic flooding — and this one could become a major environmental and infrastructure emergency.

City officials warned Monday that severe erosion near Hazel Dell Parkway is threatening a critical sewer line that carries roughly 90% of Carmel’s wastewater to its treatment plant. Carmel Mayor Sue Finkam said officials believe there is a very high likelihood the line could fail if erosion continues.

The danger comes after flooding along the White River caused a portion of Hazel Dell Parkway and a bridge over Blue Woods Creek to collapse.

Nearby, floodwater has reportedly filled roughly 75% of Martin Marietta’s Carmel Sand & Gravel quarry. Officials warn that if the sewer infrastructure fails, raw sewage could enter the quarry and ultimately the White River.

Carmel’s wastewater treatment plant is located near 96th Street and Hazel Dell Parkway, and city documents show its treatment capacity was expanded from 12 million to 14 million gallons per day. 

Officials have emphasized that Carmel’s drinking water is treated and that the potential sewage release is not expected to contaminate the city’s drinking-water supply.

Still, this flood has gone from submerged neighborhoods and evacuations to collapsed roads, damaged bridges and now the possibility of a major sewer failure.

IndyStar posted

Officials are not yet sure how long it will take to repair or replace a bridge in Carmel that was severely damaged in the recent historic flooding.

Full story: bit.ly/4zlQmMW

📸 Image courtesy of the City of Carmel