So what's another street change around Greencastle?

Thursday, May 15, 2014
Construction work continues on South Indiana Street in Greencastle, but rest assured, it will not be closing permanently. It will reopen and continue as a through street by Aug. 8, city officials said this week.

Just when it seemed like there couldn't be any more construction projects or building-related street closures in and around Greencastle, here comes another temporary change.

With South Indiana Street closed until early August for Stellar street-scape improvements between Washington and Seminary streets, getting around Greencastle recently has been more about patience than GPS.

After all, intersecting streets like Walnut, Poplar and Seminary are also closed at Indiana, requiring circuitous travel in and around the downtown.

And now, beginning Monday, May 19 Larabee Street will be closed to parking between Indiana Street and the circular drive west of East College to accommodate a DePauw University construction project that isn't expected to be finished until just before the start of the 2016 school year.

Work on the Hoover Dining Hall and Wallace-Stewart Faculty Club at DePauw will be commencing at the southwest end of the East College lawn. In fact, a groundbreaking ceremony for the project is set for 2:30 p.m. Saturday.

Staging for the project will be in the Olin Biological Sciences Building parking lot. Construction traffic and deliveries will be moving up Larabee Street and onto the construction site, necessitating the temporary parking ban.

The street, however, will remain open during construction.

Greencastle Mayor Sue Murray told the City Council Tuesday night that work along South Indiana has already been challenging with utility lines not proving to be where maps showed they should be and variety of abandoned underground distractions being unearthed in the process.

The goal, however, is still for substantial completion by Rieth--Riley to be achieved by Aug. 8.

With Indiana Street already in disarray, the mayor said she was asked by Duke Energy officials if South Vine Street could be closed as well to accommodate the electric company's scheduled work in regard to the Vine Street streetscape, although it is not on the city's calendar until 2015.

With equipment and manpower already on site, it would have been advantageous for the electric company, once done with Indiana Street, to move over to Vine Street and get that work out of the way as well, she indicated.

The mayor's answer, she informed the Council, was an adamant: "Absolutely not."

Meanwhile, the nagging rumor that South Indiana Street is destined be closed permanently and become a pedestrian mall once construction is done was again quashed by the mayor.

The question was even raised at the recent Redevelopment Commission meeting and resurfaced after the Council session Tuesday night

"No," Mayor Murray assured. "It will definitely be open again. Paving is scheduled to take place the third week of July, and it will be obvious then that it's still a street."

Also quashed was the rumor that parking will be eliminated on South Indiana between Washington and Walnut streets.

A couple of parking spaces will be lost as bump-outs are created at the intersections like those put in previously along Washington Street, Mayor Murray said. However, there will continue to be parking on South Indiana in between those bump-outs, she stressed.

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  • Wow!!! All this going on and I am not there to enjoy it.

    -- Posted by donantonioelsabio on Thu, May 15, 2014, at 10:01 PM
  • The bumpouts are proving to be a disaster. Grass to be mowed, vehicles swinging out into the other lane when turning, dually trucks running over the bumpouts making a muddy mess, lost parking places making downtown more undesirable.

    And when these things are brought up during discussions with the Administration, they just roll their eyes like we are nuts. The list just goes on and on.

    A nightmare for future years for sure.

    -- Posted by Lookout on Fri, May 16, 2014, at 8:41 AM
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