As temperatures are warming up, construction crews are getting to work.
Millions of dollars worth of road projects are planned this year throughout the county, including the next phases of the Worthsville Road and Madison Avenue reconstruction projects in Greenwood, four new roundabouts and local access road work to prepare for the Interstate 69 expansion.
Drivers will have to navigate closures and detours in Franklin and Greenwood, as well as on county and state roads through the fall.
Franklin improving existing roads, adding roundabout
To prepare for large industrial developments in the coming years, the City of Franklin will spend more than $1.3 million to improve Jim Black and Forest roads, both off of State Road 44 east of Interstate 65.
The infrastructure improvements are needed to handle the traffic that will come with two multi-building industrial parks by Sunbeam Development Corp. and GDI Construction in the next few years.
Forest Road improvements began last August and are expected to wrap up by the end of April. Work on Jim Black Road will start April 1 and be completed by September, said Mark Richards, city engineer.
A new roundabout will connect Arvin Drive, Commerce Parkway and Hurricane Street north of downtown. The project, which will cost about $1.2 million, will bring road closures in that area from May 1 to Aug. 1.
Also, a mill and overlay project is planned on South State Street between May 1 and Aug. 1. It will cost about $400,000. The city also has plans to reconstruct 37 alleys and repave 23 streets, Richards said.
Greenwood making progress on Worthsville, Madison projects
Work on the third phase of the $9.2 million Worthsville Road project began late last summer after some delays. Construction is still underway to widen Worthsville Road between U.S. 31 and Averitt Road, and add a roundabout at the Averitt Road intersection.
The less-than-a-mile section is expected to cost about $2 million. It was planned to last two construction seasons, and is on track to be mostly completed by the end of the year, said Daniel Johnston, city engineer.
Worthsville Road remains open, with signage to help drivers navigate around the construction.
The goal of the project to reconstruct Worthsville Road, which has long been in the works, is to improve traffic flow through the city. Work is being done in four phases, numbered numerically from the westernmost to easternmost part of Worthsville Road, between State Road 37 — soon to be Interstate 69 — and the Shelby County line.
The city is also wrapping up construction on another large road project that started last year — the reconstruction of Madison Avenue through Old Town Greenwood.
Phase three of the $12.5 million Madison Avenue streetscape project is expected to be completed this summer after nearly a year of construction. This section, between Noble Street and Fry Road, was the largest chunk of the project, about cost about $4.8 million.
The end product of this section of road will match, aesthetically, the first phase of the street reconfiguration, which wrapped up in the fall of 2018. The 12-foot wide pedestrian and bike trails will continue to Fry Road on the west side of Madison Avenue, and a 6-foot wide standard sidewalk will be added on the east side.
Additionally, Greenwood will be building a new $814,000 roundabout at Main Street and Meadowview Lane. An exact start date has not been determined, but construction and the road closure will start sometime after Memorial Day and be completed in July, Johnston said.
Several roads will also be closed throughout the year for annual reconstruction and repaving.
Waterford Drive, Prairie Drive, Cambridge Drive and Saville Row Road will undergo a full-depth pavement reconstruction beginning in early May and wrapping up by late-August. The project will cost about $1.2 million, and will be partially funded by an Indiana Department of Transportation Community Crossings Grant.
The city will also be doing a combination of mill and overlay, and repaving and reconstruction projects on the following roads throughout the year: Pearl Street, Fankboner Court, Hawk Court, a portion of Christy Drive, Applewood Drive, Goodwill Drive and Stark Drive.
County adding new roundabout
The county will construct a new roundabout at Fairview and Peterman roads.
Construction should start in late August, and be completed later this year. The intersection, on the far northside, will be closed during that time. It is expected to cost about $1.2 million, of which 80% will be funded through a federal-funding award, said Luke Mastin, Johnson County highway director.
The county has not yet finished its road maintenance program for the year, so a final list of roads that need improvements was not available as of Tuesday afternoon, Mastin said.
Several state projects in the works
Drivers should expect lane and road closures this year throughout the county due to several planned projects by the state.
INDOT will oversee the addition of a roundabout at State Road 144 and Centerline Road. The intersection, just west of Franklin, will close this summer.
INDOT contractor EÂ and B Paving Inc. plans to begin work this week for the reconstruction of State Road 135 between Bargersville and Nashville.
Work will take place between Ridgeway Drive in Nashville and Indian Creek in Morgantown, and between State Road 252 in Trafalgar and State Road 144 in Bargersville.
Traffic restrictions will be minimal to start, but will transition to lane closures with flagging once patching gets underway in mid-April. The $4.8 million project is expect to be completed by the end of August, an INDOT news release said.
County Line Road over I-65 near Edinburgh will close Monday for a bridge deck overlay project. The bridge is scheduled to close for up to 120 days, through August, with a detour that will follow County Road 550 S. to County Road 700 E. to County Road 400 S., according to an INDOT news release.
The $800,000 contract was awarded last September to HIS Constructors, Inc., and work is expected to be completed by Aug. 28.
Also on Monday, INDOT will begin work on a $6 million asphalt resurfacing project on State Road 44 through Johnson and Shelby counties, with the bulk of the work in Shelby County. In Franklin, starting April 17 through early August, traffic will be restricted to a single lane in both directions on State Road 44 at the I-65 interchange.
Closure of local roads to make way for the I-69 expansion will also continue this year. North of SR 144 near Bargersville, some local roads have permanently closed at SR 37 to install new utility lines and to start access road construction. Both Stones Crossing Road and Travis Road are closed west of SR 37.
Other planned projects include bridge painting on State Road 135 over Barnes Creek, about two miles north of State Road 252, and erosion control work at State Road 252 and State Road 44 over Youngs Creek, both later this year.
