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U.S. 231 work in city will include patching, not overlay
The smooth roadway provided by recent chip and seal preservation on U.S. 231 north of Greencastle will apparently not be extended into the city.
On Monday, the Indiana Department of Transportation announced that the promised preservation work on the portion of the highway that runs through the city will be patch work, not an overlay.
Beginning on or after Monday, Aug. 19, U.S. 231 through Greencastle will be patched with asphalt. The project is scheduled to be completed by mid-September.
This flies in the face of a report from INDOT relayed by Mayor Bill Dory in April, when he reported to the City Council that INDOT would be coming through with an overlay project to extend the life of the pavement.
The news was met with praise at the time, with the patchwork of asphalt that U.S. 231 already is as it zigzags its way through Greencastle.
Particularly bad are the area between Liberty and Daggy streets on the north side of town, and the section between St. Paul’s Catholic Church and HBG Insurance just east of downtown.
Unfortunately, the word from INDOT has changed, a fact first publicly reported when Dory told the council last week the work is likely to be patching.
“I’m just concerned that we’ll have more chuckholes when the old pavement pops up,” Councilman Mark Hammer said. “It sure gives the city a black eye.”
Beginning next week, this “black eye” might at least get a little blacker, courtesy of some new asphalt.
One piece of good news for local motorists is the patching will occur outside of peak traffic hours.
INDOT announced that contractor Wabash Valley Asphalt will be working during overnight hours to minimize the impact to the traveling public from 7:30 p.m. until 6 a.m. with the contractor flagging motorists around the area where work is occurring.
The plan is for the state to do a major reconstruction in either 2021 or 2022, with the patching serving as a way of getting the current pavement through the next two or three years.
The work in Greencastle is part of a $5 million project awarded to Wabash Valley for resurfacing and patch work on U.S. 40 and U.S. 231 in Clay and Putnam Counties.
The contractor will begin with updating the curb ramps to be ADA-compliant along U.S. 40 east of Brazil through the town of Harmony. The contractor will then perform patching operations following the sidewalk work in this same area.
All U.S. 40 patching will be completed by November 1, 2019.
This project will also resurface the area on U.S 40 from the east city limits of Brazil through Knightsville and Harmony beginning next spring. Construction is scheduled to be completed by June 20, 2020.