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Even with gas line issue, city streetscape project on track
Despite the drama of a ruptured gas line providing a few anxious moments earlier this week, a construction project upgrading Washington Street is progressing quite nicely, city officials assure.
The target date for completion of the construction work between downtown and Bloomington Street remains Sept. 20, as stipulated in the contract between the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) and the general contractor, OLCO of Batesville.
While the heavy trucks, orange traffic cones and most of the dust and dirt should be gone before summer surrenders to autumn, the entire project will take a little longer to reach fruition.
For example, the new street trees scheduled to line the area between Vine and Locust streets will likely not be planted until after Nov. 1, Mayor Sue Murray said this week.
With Greencastle and INDOT officials opting for a little larger street trees to take root, Mayor Murray explained, that will require such trees to have gone dormant before they can be transplanted to their new Washington Street digs.
Few of the trees that had called the Vine-Locust street corridor home still remain. Two smaller existing trees still stand on the south side of the street, one in front of Green Apple Frogurt and another in front of the old Blue Door Café.
Only one tree survives along the north side of that section of Washington Street, the tree in front of the Styling Station, east of Spring Street.
The trees that were removed -- including a termite-infested 100-year-old ash tree that couldn't be saved in front of Jim McMillan's house on the northwest corner of Locust and Washington -- will be replaced by three hardy types of trees, the mayor noted.
Among the 15 new trees selected for planting along Washington Street between Vine and Locust are American Elm, Thornless Honey Locust and Miyabe Maple varieties.
Meanwhile, the trees aren't the only aspect of the project that won't be in place when the construction deadline hits.
The 12 new streetlights for the area, being custom made to match the ones already in place downtown, are currently being manufactured. An Oct. 4 delivery date has been predicted for the decorative lighting, Mayor Murray said.
Besides those new lights and trees, wider sidewalks and improved drainage are also included in an effort to give Washington Street "more of a neighborhood feeling rather than a truck route," as project engineer Leah M. Cosgrove of CECon Civil Engineering Consultants put it earlier.
No actual repairs to the Washington Street pavement are involved in the project.
The streetscape project is another portion of the city's overall $19 million Stellar Grant package that has also funded the downtown facade project.
Since July 25, construction workers from the Batesville firm have been on the job from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and then 6 a.m. until 2 p.m. or later on Thursday before taking a long weekend at home.
Other than during the 3 p.m. gas line issue this past Monday and the three hours of repair time that necessitated a detour, Washington Street has not been totally closed during the work.
One feature of the streetscape project, Cosgrove has explained, are the so-called sidewalk "bump-outs" at most intersections. They are designed not only to assist pedestrians in crossing Washington Street (which is also U.S. 231) more easily but also to "hopefully slow traffic a little," she said.
Such bump-outs are typically designed to have somewhat of a calming effect on traffic as well as to protect parked vehicles by providing a buffer to separate them from the cars and trucks that go rushing past.
Despite the bump-outs to be added alongside the south side of every Washington Street intersection from Vine to Locust and on the north side at Vine, College, Spring and Locust, engineers say the design still allows two large trucks to safely maneuver past each other and enable fire trucks to execute every necessary turn.