Motorists again using U.S. 231; Work on U.S. 36 to begin Monday

Friday, August 2, 2019
While the road isn’t yet striped and not “officially” opened, traffic is again flowing on U.S. 231 between Greencastle and U.S. 36 Friday afternoon.
Banner Graphic/JARED JERNAGAN

If you, like hundreds of other motorists, drove U.S. 231 between Greencastle and U.S. 36 on Friday, you should know something.

The Indiana Department of Transportation has not officially reopened the road.

Sure, the barricades are moved and both human and animal travelers on the road are using it again — as two pieces of roadkill will attest.

But until the road is striped, the official word from INDOT is the road is closed.

In the meantime, no one is keeping drivers off the road, and a 40 mph speed limit should be observed.

An INDOT official from the Crawfordsville office informed the Banner Graphic Friday afternoon that stripes should be painted on Monday.

Chip and seal preservation on the seven-mile stretch of Putnam County’s only real north-south thoroughfare began on Monday and was slightly delayed by weather that afternoon. Other than that, crews have had pretty good weather for completing the work, which included applying stone and oil for a new surface, sweeping the road of excess stone and fog sealing the surface.

The final step will be the striping.

With work not quite complete, the end of the job will actually overlap a similar project set for U.S. 36 from the 231 intersection to Rockville, a distance of 18 miles.

INDOT announced that work earlier this week. Weather permitting, the process will begin on Monday and last through Thursday.

The work on 36 is not set to involve a complete closure of the road, which was the case at times on 231. However, motorists should expect long delays.

During construction the speed limit will be reduced to 40 mph.

Drivers can expect lane restrictions and traffic directed by flaggers while INDOT maintenance crews maintain access for vehicles. Motorists are urged to seek an alternate route.

However, this may prove difficult, as this stretch of U.S. 36 is currently the official INDOT detour for work being completed on both State Road 236 and State Road 59.

There is no official detour for the U.S. 36 work.

If driving through the chip seal work zone, drivers should take extra caution, drive slowly and allow additional space between vehicles to prevent stone chips from damaging windshields or paint.

Like on U.S. 231, once the chip seal has cured, crews will sweep the highway clear of loose stone, apply a fog seal surface coat and paint pavement markings.

While some drivers have expressed frustration over the use of chip-seal treatment, INDOT defends the practice as cost effective.

INDOT cites national research that has shown that every $1 used to preserve Indiana roadways saves $6 to $14 in future costs.

After years of heavy traffic and winter freeze-thaw cycles, small cracks typically develop in our highways. If left untreated, moisture seeps into these cracks and form potholes when water freezes and expands. As the name implies, a chip-seal treatment seals off the cracks.

The stone chips provide improved traction for stopping, especially during winter.

Comments
View 4 comments
Note: The nature of the Internet makes it impractical for our staff to review every comment. Please note that those who post comments on this website may do so using a screen name, which may or may not reflect a website user's actual name. Readers should be careful not to assign comments to real people who may have names similar to screen names. Refrain from obscenity in your comments, and to keep discussions civil, don't say anything in a way your grandmother would be ashamed to read.
  • INDOT owes me money for all the extra gas I had to use driving through the country for five days.

    -- Posted by Queen53 on Fri, Aug 2, 2019, at 5:56 PM
  • Hopefully they will also chip and seal 231 by courthouse and out past Putnam Inn-that stretch of road is terrible.

    -- Posted by oldschool68 on Fri, Aug 2, 2019, at 8:38 PM
  • The worst stretch of 231 from Lafayette to Spencer is between Shadowlawn Ave. and the courthouse. Absolutely horrible.

    -- Posted by Dream-123 on Sun, Aug 4, 2019, at 1:02 PM
  • Good luck Queen53, they spent all their money on repaving the road they just paved a couple years ago.

    -- Posted by Ben Dover on Mon, Aug 5, 2019, at 8:19 AM
Respond to this story

Posting a comment requires free registration: