U.S. 231 project outlined during public meeting

Fewer than a dozen local residents and business people braved the November cold Wednesday night to talk about the upcoming U.S. 231 improvement project through Greencastle.

“We were outnumbered,” Brian Humphreys of Humphreys’ Outdoor Power said after a group of Rieth Riley Construction officials were joined by Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) representatives and Greencastle Mayor Bill Dory for a public meeting at the Putnam County Fairgrounds designed to share the schedule on the long-awaited project.

The $12.3 million project is already under way with some full-depth patching work and will ramp up beginning in April for resurfacing and pavement reconstruction that will continue until a targeted completion date of Nov. 4, 2024.

That’s weather permitting, of course, along with the caveat of no new pandemics or world conflicts or major supply-line deficiencies.

Rieth Riley project superintendent J.D. Ludlow said he has had trouble securing enough concrete at a project in Indianapolis but in working here with Cash Concrete, its proximity just east of Greencastle should avoid any such issues once the U.S. 231 pavement work gets rolling.

Ludlow assured there will always be access to anyone’s business or property at any given time.

“Unlike when we take a lane of Interstate 70,” Ludlow said, “we have to protect cars and pedestrian traffic. We know we have a lot of people walking around in Greencastle.”

This April, work in Phase 1A will commence on Bloomington Street with the existing northbound lane closed from Veterans Memorial Highway to Washington Street. Traffic will be one-lane northbound as resurfacing and pavement reconstruction is undertaken.

INDOT construction contractor Rieth Riley will hold another public information meeting on Phase II in March 2023 at which time representatives will go into a lot more depth, Ludlow said.

Work intensifies in August 2023 through October 2023 as Jackson Street is closed from Elizabeth Street to Frazier Street and traffic is restricted to one-lane northbound while a new storm sewer is installed north of the railroad tracks and pavement reconstruction continues.

Then from the period October 2023 through November 2023, milling and resurfacing of Jackson Street will occur from Elizabeth to Frazier. Crews will maintain one-way, northbound traffic at a posted speed limit of 20 mph. Access will be maintained for residents and business owners.

The more intensive Phase III involves full-depth pavement replacement work from the intersection of Washington and Bloomington streets to the railroad crossing on Jackson Street.

“It’ll be a beautiful thing once it’s done,” Ludlow suggested.

Greencastle residents on hand wondered aloud what the local detours will do to city streets like College Avenue, Franklin Street, South Jackson, Shadowlawn Boulevard and more.

“It’s going to be going on all over town,” Fawn View Drive resident Wayne Lewis said.

Mayor Dory said some planning will be in order for unofficial detour routes as well.

“We’re going to have some conversations with INDOT,” Dory said, “as to how they want us to handle those detours.”

The mayor suggested that the city could resurface or patch some of those streets now at the risk of having to come back and do it all over again after the increased traffic. Preventative measures have already been taken with Wood and Tennessee streets with those seen as detours while work is ongoing on Bloomington Street.

Shadowlawn, for example, has “been on the city’s radar for several years now,” Dory said, adding that he expects ”a lot more traffic” on College as well to get around the work on U.S. 231.

“This is a 50-year project for the community,” the mayor added. “We know it’s going to be tough for certain individuals and businesses.”

Owners of Keener’s and Humphreys’ agreed.

“We’re going to have to eat this plan to get to a better place,” businessman Brian Humphreys reasoned. “Once we get off that road, it’s going to be bad.”

Ludlow said the construction will be going down to dirt on Washington and Jackson streets, noting that one of the bigger problems right now is that drivers are traveling on “maybe three inches of asphalt” on top of 10 inches of old crumbling concrete.

INDOT Deputy Director of the Crawfordsville District Shane Spears said another problem is that “the waterlines are old, and those getting upgraded will help a lot” with reducing potholes in the future.

Also, the “sewer will still be in the roadway but the wheel path (of the car) will not be on it,” he added of another construction fine point.