Construction on Worthsville Road is active again after a three-month delay, and sections of the road will be closed for the remainder of the year.
Worthsville Road Section 3 is a $9.2 million project to widen a less-than-1-mile stretch of the road between U.S. 31 and Averitt Road, and add a roundabout at the Averitt Road intersection.
Construction on this short section of road, which has a deadline to be finished by the end of this year, has been rocky with two separate months-long delays since work began last year.
Work first started late last July after a months-long delay due to utility companies taking longer than expected to relocate pipes, lines and cables.
Going into this construction season in mid-March, the contractor found more of the same utility location-related issues at Tracy Ditch at Summerfield Park and at the Averitt Road intersection, said Daniel Johnston, Greenwood city engineer.
The contractor informed the Indiana Department of Transportation — which is paying for the bulk of the project — that they had no other option but to leave the jobsite until the utility issues were resolved.
The utility work took a few months because companies had to splice their newly relocated fiber to connect to their old fiber lines. What work required detailed scheduling to occur during low-demand hours to minimize impacts on both residential and commercial customers, Johnston said.
The contractor returned Monday, and work started on building the roundabout on Averitt Road. That section of Worthsville Road will close completely to drivers in two phases this month.
The phase one closure at the Averitt and Worthsville Road intersection started Monday. Official detour routes follow Stop 18, Tracy Road and County Roads 125 W. and 75 W., according to maps posted online by the City of Greenwood.
Phase two will start June 21 and stretch the closed section of Worthsville Road farther east from Averitt Road to Tracy Ditch. Drivers can still follow detour routes on Stop 18 Road, Tracy Road and U.S. 31.
Phase three of the project will begin after the roundabout is complete and open to drivers on Aug. 2. Worthsville Road will then be closed between County Road 75 W. and Tracy Ditch until mid-December.
These phased road closures will help speed up the project to meet its initial deadline at the end of the year, despite the delays, according to a post on Greenwood Mayor Mark Myers’ official Facebook page.
Through-traffic on Worthsville Road will not be allowed during any of these phased closures. Residents who live in neighborhoods near the construction may need to access their homes using a detour route, but no neighborhoods will be completely blocked during construction.
Most of the heavy construction on this section will still be complete by the end of the year, Johnston said. In the spring of 2022, the contractor will install the final asphalt surface layer and pavement striping.
