As Interstate 69 inches closer to being built through Johnson County, county officials are looking to upgrade county roads that are projected to see thousands of more vehicles daily once that interstate is built.
The Indiana Department of Transportation released plans for I-69 and is in the process of buying properties to turn State Road 37 into an interstate that will run along the western edge of the county.
Now, the county needs help making sure its roads that will experience the increase in traffic are ready for when the interstate is under construction and once it is built.
The county highway department and other county officials are in the beginning stages of hiring a project manager who would oversee the construction of local road projects planned in response to the state’s I-69 project. The roads most projected to see an increase are County Road 144, Morgantown Road and Smith Valley Road. Access roads likely to be used during construction are high priorities too, said Luke Mastin, county highway director.
Construction on the final leg of I-69, which will have a significant impact locally, is expected to start in the next couple years.
The $1.5 billion project from Martinsville to Indianapolis was set to begin earlier this year, with work in the Martinsville area on new access roads and overpasses. Johnson County’s section will follow the path of State Road 37 through the county with interchanges at County Road 144, near Bargersville, Smith Valley Road and County Line Road.
Most capital road projects are handled internally by the highway department. Project management includes working with contractors, dealing with unexpected construction issues and keeping the project on track.
The project to ready local roads for I-69 is too big, and internally it would be difficult to do without crippling the department’s other work, Mastin said.
“We are talking about a major, major capital project program,” he said.
How much the project manager would cost and where that money will come from is unclear, but estimates discussed at a public meeting of the Johnson County Board of Commissioners earlier this week put the cost between $400,000 to $1 million.
No one has been hired and no official proposal has been made, but Mastin will present the issue to the Johnson County Council at its November meeting.
Ideally, the county will hire a project manager as soon as possible, Mastin said.
The county council is considering an income tax that would pay for about $110 million dollars in road work that will be needed once more traffic starts rolling in White River Township due to Interstate 69. That tax could be discussed by the county council later this year or early next year.
The project manager would also be tasked with finding funding for the projects, Mastin said.
I-69 is coming, and the county needs a project manager to make sure Johnson County has a seat at the I-69 table, county commissioner Kevin Walls said.
“We have done nothing to move the ball forward except talk,” he said during this week’s meeting.
