Two of Bartholomew County’s largest road projects planned for this year will be postponed until next spring.
At the suggestion of member Larry Kleinhenz, the Bartholomew County commissioners agreed that contractors should wait until warm weather returns next year to complete two projects:
County Road 250E — from State Road 46 to County Road 400S (2.57 miles in both Columbus and Sandcreek townships).
County Road 450N — from Marr Road to State Road 9 (5.73 miles in both Flat Rock and Haw Creek townships).
Both of these roads require new box culverts, but commissioner chairman Carl Lienhoop warned that if the drainage devices are installed too late in the year the culvert will settle about 3 inches into the ground and create a dip.
“There’s nothing worse than driving on a newly-paved road, only to have it form a dip,” Lienhoop said. “When you hit that dip at 50 miles per hour because everything is settled, it (makes keeping control more difficult).”
In addition, late-year culvert installments also forces workers to return during warm weather, wedge the road and lay down another layer of blacktop, Lienhoop said.
Lienhoop said that culverts are normally put in during early summer so that new pavement doesn’t settle during freeze and thaw spells. He said overlay workers usually add the new blacktop in August.
But, like many factories, culvert manufacturers had to significantly slow their production line during the initial months of the COVID-19 pandemic, Bartholomew County Highway Engineer Danny Hollander said.
After the supply chain for basic materials slowed, “Milestone (Contractors) are waiting on us, and we’re waiting on box culverts to be delivered,” Hollander said. “COVID pushed everything back by a month to six weeks.”
Another problem that has slowed things down was the matching Community Crossing grant from the Indiana Department of Transportation to be deposited into the county’s account, Hollander said. Even after the grant is announced, it can take months before the local unit of government receives the money.
If the weather permits, overlay work will likely continue this year until just after the Thanksgiving holiday, Hollander said. He anticipates that 80% of all 2020 projects announced last June will be completed by the first of December.
