In downtown Greenwood and Franklin, construction signs and a hole in the ground where a sidewalk and street used to be are familiar sights.
Projects to rebuild Greenwood’s Main Street and Franklin’s Yandes Street are just two of several projects throughout Johnson County this year meant to improve roadways and add sidewalk mileage for pedestrians and cyclists.
INDOT
Much of the Indiana Department of Transportation’s work in Johnson County this year will involve the $2 billion I-69 project from Martinsville to Indianapolis. Work in Johnson County is expected to be complete by the end of the year, with the project as a whole is scheduled to finish next year with the I-69 interchange with Interstate 465, INDOT officials say.
Interchanges at County Road 144 and County Line Road fully opened to traffic last year. The opening of the Smith Valley Road interchange this year will mark the substantial completion of I-69 through Johnson County. Completing the project within the county will also require new pavement on southbound lanes from County Road 144 to Olive Branch Road and new pavement on northbound lanes from Olive Branch Road to Fairview Road. Workers will also finish constructing sound barriers alongside the northbound lanes near Wakefield Drive and Bluff Road and alongside the southbound lanes adjacent to the Oak Meadows Mobile Home Community, according to INDOT documents.
Work is beginning Monday on a roundabout at Mullinix and Smith Valley roads, as part of access road construction. A detour will be in place for the next two months on Mullinix Road between Smith Valley and Olive Branch roads, INDOT officials say.
A more than $42 million INDOT project to build a new streetscape and multi-use paths to a five-mile stretch of U.S. 31 in Franklin is set to go to bid in September and is expected to start work this year, INDOT documents say.
The project is meant to reduce congestion, improve traffic flow, improve pedestrian connectivity and increase safety along the highway by removing the ability to cut directly across U.S. 31, which state officials say has been the source of many accidents within the corridor. More information about the U.S. 31 project will be shared in a future edition of the Daily Journal.
Johnson County
The Johnson County Highway Department is planning road projects in White River Township and elsewhere in the county this year.
A bridge replacement project on Peterman Road north of Fairview Road in White River Township is underway and should be complete in August. Most of the money for the $1.4 million project is coming from federal funds through Indianapolis Metropolitan Planning Organization, or IMPO, with a local match. The new bridge is scheduled to open to traffic in August, said Luke Mastin, county highway director.
Construction on a $2 million roundabout at Stones Crossing Road and Saddle Club Road is expected to start in the coming weeks, also funded by a combination of federal funds and a local match. In June and July, the contractor will close the intersection for around 60 days to complete the road reconstruction and roundabout work. This work is scheduled during summer break to minimize the impact on Center Grove schools, according to Crossroads Engineers.
The highway department will use $1 million in Community Crossings Matching Grant funds, along with $1.1 million in local funds, to repair streets in the Pebble Hills, Pebble Run, Southwind, Willow Lakes and Hunter’s Pointe subdivisions. Work on the streets has a contracted deadline of Oct. 31 and will begin in June. The work targets the streets in those neighborhoods that are in the worst condition, Mastin said.
The highway department is saving funds from the Economic Development Income Tax, or EDIT, to add lanes to Smith Valley Road from the I-69 to State Road 135 to accommodate an anticipated surge in traffic from the new gateway to northern Johnson County. The is expected to cost about $55 million. Work won’t begin on this project for another few years, he said.
Greenwood
Construction crews began work on an estimated $4 million project last spring to rebuild roads and sidewalks in downtown Greenwood. When it’s finished later this year, pedestrians will be able to navigate wider brick sidewalks and a connected trail from Madison Avenue to Old City Park. Construction on the westbound lane of Main Street, along with a portion of Madison Avenue between Main Street and Pearl Street was completed before crews paused work for the winter. Work is still in progress on the south side of Main Street, said Kevin Steinmetz, the city’s capital projects manager.
That side of the street between Meridian Street and Madison Avenue is closed for the summer as workers install a stormwater structure and rebuild the road and sidewalk, he said.
“The primary goal of the project is to essentially double the width of sidewalks so pedestrians feel safe accessing businesses on foot. We need to build those sidewalks and repave the road,” Steinmetz said.
The downtown project should be complete by the fall. Work was originally scheduled to wrap up last year, but prolonged concrete shortages postponed the project’s completion, he said.
This year city’s annual paving program will feature $3.9 million in work on 14 streets and six alleys. The projects will be completed in two phases. The first contract, $2.4 million, is 100% locally funded. The second contract, $1.5 million, is funded at a 50/50 split with Community Crossings matching funds.
Major roads to be upgraded include Averitt Road between Apryl Drive to just south of Smith Valley Road and Sheek Road from Main Street to Grassy Creek Lane. Madison Avenue will also have a pavement refresh from the Greenwood Park Mall’s northern entrance to the road to Fry Road. All of the alleyways expected to receive work are located in Old Town between West Broadway Street and West Main Street, according to city officials.
The roads and alleys were chosen based on the city’s asset management and five-year road work plans. The roads to receive work this year all had low pavement ratings, said Mark St. John, city engineer.
Work on the alleys and roadways started Thursday with workers starting work on Brookview Drive between Williamsburg Lane and Colonial Way. All streets and alleys should be complete in October, based on contracts with construction firms Howard Companies of Indianapolis and All-Star Paving of Seymour, he said.
In addition to road work, contractors will be replacing gutters, subgrade drainage or roadside ditches, and adding ADA curb ramps in certain portions of the project area, St. John said.
Workers finished paving a $3.6 million bridge at Honey Creek Road on May 6, and the road has been open to traffic since January. The bridge, paid for with stormwater utility funds, fixes drainage issues on the road and widens lanes from 10 feet to 12 feet. The project also adds a section of roadside trail that connects with the Woodfield subdivision. Those trails will eventually connect to trails on Worthsville Road as part of an almost decade-old project to revamp the road from east of I-65 to State Road 135, St. John said.
The Worthsville Road project, which started in 2014 with a roundabout at the road’s interchange with Interstate 65, has upgraded the road from east of I-65 to Averitt Road. Last spring, construction crews started working on a $9.6 million section of Worthsville Road, widening it from Averitt Road to Honey Creek Road. Crews also built a roundabout at Averitt Road and Worthsville Road last year.
Crews are currently working on eliminating two 90-degree turns that connect Worthsville Road to Stones Crossing Road. Turns from Worthsville Road to Donica Road and Donica Road to Stones Crossing Road are both being reconstructed as s-curves. The s-curves should be open to traffic when work on that section is completed in July, St. John said.
The final section of the project within Greenwood city limits, from Honey Creek Road to State Road 135, does not have a timeline or estimated budget, as city officials are still working to secure funding for it, St. John said.
Franklin
The $3.7 million rebuild of Yandes Street is still ongoing and is on track to finish by Thanksgiving.
The project involves tearing up and replacing five blocks of brick street in a residential neighborhood northeast of downtown, along with a block of Madison Street between Yandes and Depot streets. The project also involves relocating all utility lines from the street to the sidewalk area. Curb work for the project is on the verge of completion, and the next major steps in the project include pouring concrete, rebuilding sidewalks and installing street lights, Richards said.
Yandes Street is funded with a combination of local funds and $2.3 million in federal dollars allocated to the project by IMPO.
Construction workers will complete mill and overlay work on 27 Franklin streets, a project that costs about $1.8 million. Half the project is funded by a Community Crossings grant, with the other half paid for by local funds. Work on the streets will include new concrete curbs and the installation of ADA-compliant curb ramps for streets that don’t have them. Work should start in June and wrap up by the end of September, said Mark Richards, city engineer.
City officials also hope to see 16 alleys repaved this year, a $337,080 project Richards said will start this month. The alleys, located from as far west as the Johnson County Fairgrounds to as far east as the Franklin College area, should be repaved by Sept. 1, he said.
Construction crews started working on repaving more than 200 Franklin alleys in 2017, and should have them all finished by next year, Richards said.
“Most of the alleys in town have not been touched in 40-plus years, so they were basically falling apart. The pavement was in bad shape, so this will provide better access for residents and public safety,” he said.
In preparation for a roundabout just south of Franklin Community High School, the intersection of County Road 200 N., Simon Road and Commerce Drive will be closed starting on or after May 22. The roundabout costs $1.6 million, including $300,000 for a tulip tree statue students helped design, and should be done by the time the 2023-24 school year begins in August. It will replace a four-way stop and help people get in and out of the high school in a faster and safer way, Richards said.
Sidewalks for East Jefferson Street remain a high priority for Franklin officials, but bid issues have pushed the project back to 2024.
A project to build sidewalks on Jefferson Street, Milford Drive and Middleton Drive, and install stormwater pipe at Jefferson Street and Middleton Drive was delayed to next year. The project has been bid twice but both times the bids have been too high, leading Richards to opt for a rebid in the fall with a goal to complete the project next year instead.
The sidewalk is planned to be installed on both sides of East Jefferson Street where there are missing sections from Forsythe Street to the end of the road. Sidewalk will also be installed on the west side of Milford Drive and both sides of Middleton Drive from Jefferson Street to King Street, project documents show.
The project had been on Mayor Steve Barnett’s list of project goals for this year and still remains a high priority, he said last month.
