Yandes Street to be reconstructed using salvaged bricks

<p>Franklin will take on a more than $2 million project to reconstruct what an engineer called one of the worst streets in the city.</p><p>The entirety of Yandes Street, and a 0.1 mile stretch of Madison Street between Yandes and Depot streets in downtown Franklin, will be reconstructed as fully brick paved streets.</p><p>The project is long overdue and has been in the works for awhile, said Mark Richards, Franklin city engineer. Yandes Street, which is brick in some places and concrete in others, is in such bad shape due to years of poor patchwork.</p><p>&quot;It is probably the worst section of street in Franklin,&quot; Richards said.</p>[sc:text-divider text-divider-title="Story continues below gallery" ]Click here to purchase photos from this gallery<p>Yandes Street, which is a little more than a half-mile long, will be reconstructed with the already intact brick on the street, historic brick salvaged from the East Jefferson Street reconstruction, and new brick where needed. The bricks will also be used for the portion of Madison Street that is being revamped.</p><p>Using the brick from Jefferson Street was mostly about saving money where the city could, he said. The brick was salvaged for the purpose of this project.</p><p>&quot;We’re hopeful that we’ll have enough both from Jefferson Street and those we can recover from Yandes,&quot; Richards said.</p><p>The project will cost about $2.6 million for construction, design and inspections. The Federal Highway Administration will cover $1.8 million of that, splitting the costs of construction and inspection, Richards said. The rest will be funded with taxpayer money.</p><p>Franklin has received federal grants such as this in the past, particularly for high-dollar roundabout projects. Grants are typically given to cities that express a need for advanced transportation technologies to improve safety, efficiency, system performance and infrastructure.</p><p>The project will also involve installing new sidewalks along Yandes Street, redoing the landscaping and adding decorative street lights to match the ones in other revitalized downtown areas, such as Jefferson Street. </p><p>There is no timeline for the project yet, and Indiana Department of Transportation letting is scheduled for November 2021, Richards said.</p><p>The reconstruction will be done in phases, a couple blocks at a time, to not overly inconvenience residents who live on those streets, he said. </p>