Residents of southern Johnson County and eastern Morgan County have been plagued by road construction this year.
For months, State Road 135 traffic has been rerouted around closures both in Trafalgar and in Morgantown at the truss bridge. State Road 252 has also been reduced to one lane in Morgantown.
With closures on every state highway in the area, one Morgantown reader reported feeling trapped, and asked the Daily Journal to find out why construction is delayed, when the roads will reopen, and if anyone can be held accountable for the closure.
Indiana Department of Transportation officials offered explanations for each project delay.
State Road 135 in Trafalgar
The long wait for the State Road 135 structure replacement bridge replacement near Trafalgar is nearly over. The road, which is closed 1.23 miles north of State Road 252, is expected to open in early November, INDOT spokesperson Natalie Garrett said in an email last week. Crews are working to complete paving and guardrail installation, she said.
The road was expected to be closed for 60 days, with an original completion date of July 31. The decision to close the road at the time was made by the contractor based on the most current utility relocation plans and timelines provided to INDOT at that time, Garrett said in September.
“Utilities were initially expected to be moved in early July. Until that point, the contractor was able to complete demolition and preparation work on the structure replacement project. Unfortunately, INDOT has no control over relocation plans and/or schedules set by utility companies,” Garrett said in September.
After months of delay, the Zayo and Windstream fiber lines that were in conflict with the structure replacement project north of Trafalgar were relocated on Sept. 1 and crews have been working to finish the remainder of the project since.
The official detour follows State Road 252, U.S. 31 and State Road 144. INDOT also has a local detour agreement with Johnson County and the town of Trafalgar that follows Pearl Street, County Road 400 South, County Road 350 West and County Road 300 South.
State Road 135 in Morgantown
Further south, the State Road 135 truss bridge over Indian Creek is open with a temporary detour around the bridge. However, the road is scheduled to close between Church Street and the bridge for approximately 14 days starting on or after Monday, Garrett said last week.
The bulk of the work on this bridge was originally expected to be finished by May 28 this year, with an overall completion date of May 2023, to allow for seeding and sodding that needs to take place in the spring. Delays for this bridge popped up after the construction crew got a better look at the structure below the bridge deck, Garrett said.
Finding more work after the old deck is removed is common in truss bridge projects; that’s because lower parts of the structure can’t be fully assessed until the deck is removed, she said.
“Once the deck was removed on the bridge over Indian Creek, it was found that additional work was necessary that was not originally in the contract. Because of this, we allowed the contractor additional time to complete the project,” Garrett said.
While the bridge has been under construction, traffic has used a temporary runaround to cross the creek. As the project enters the next phase, the 14-day closure is scheduled to begin Monday. Following the closure, the road is expected to open in mid-November, weather permitting. The closure will allow crews to remove the temporary runaround for the bridge, complete milling and paving, and to install guardrail and storm sewer, Garrett said.
The bridge was originally going to close on Oct. 17, but the work was pushed back to Monday. Some had questioned the wisdom of closing the road in mid-October, at the peak of the fall foliage season, because the road is a popular route to Brown County.
The official detour for this bridge closure will follow U.S. 31 to Interstate 65 Exit 76 at Taylorsville to I-65 exit 68 for State Road 46, back to State Road 135. An unofficial detour agreement will also be in place for this closure using Morgan County roads, Garrett said.
State Road 252 in Morgantown
The State Road 252 bridge over West Fork Crooked Creek, which is just over a mile west of State Road 135, remains reduced to one lane with temporary traffic signals. The project was originally supposed to be complete by the end of September, the delay is because of contractors are waiting on a precast three-sided concrete drainage structure. Problems were found with the initial structure and officials are waiting to receive a new one so work can continue on the project, Garrett said.
INDOT and the contractor are in communication with the manufacturer and are awaiting reviews and approvals before work can resume, she said.
Work is expected to restart in the next few weeks, with a goal to complete half of the bridge prior to winter and the other half in the spring. In the meantime, the contractor finished paving work to improve pavement conditions on each end of the bridge, Garrett said.
No detour is necessary for this project, as the road remains open. However, there are traffic delays since the bridge is reduced to one-way traffic.
Accountability for delays
With months of increased traffic on county roads in Johnson County, the roads have deteriorated. However, with interlocal agreements in place with the county and Trafalgar, money will be available to fix the crumbling pavement following the State Road 135’s reopening. An interlocal agreement is also in place with Morgan County for the impending damage to roads around the truss bridge in Morgantown.
Beyond the damage to roads, there isn’t much that can be done to hold people accountable for the delays.
For the Trafalgar closure, Garrett said there is nothing INDOT can do to hold utility companies accountable. The contractor made the best decision they could with the information given to them by the utility companies at the time, she said.
The truss bridge project had work added to the original project, as a result, it was not possible to make the original substantial completion date, Garrett said.
For the State Road 252 bridge project, supply chain issues were to blame. Those issues apply to much more than this bridge project, as the concrete shortage remains an obstacle for construction projects around the state.
It is possible to file claims against anyone deemed responsible for delays. However, no decisions on claims have been made, or would normally be made at this stage in construction, Garrett said.
“Claims will be assessed during the contract close-out process, once work has been completed,” she said.
Editor’s note: A clarification was made to this story after initial publication to note that the drainage structure, not the concrete needed for the bridge deck, was behind the delay for the State Road 252 project.
