A contractor has been selected to rebuild a road considered significant for economic development purposes within German Township.
Milestone Contractors, Columbus, submitted the lowest of five proposals received March 29 to upgrade Hartman Drive, located west of U.S. 31, across from the Indiana Premium Outlets mall. Milestone’s bid of $123,300 was below the original estimate of $130,000, and less than $5,000 below the second lowest bid.
Half of the project’s funding will come from the Community Crossings matching grant program, administered by the Indiana Department of Transportation. Due to the grant that was awarded last fall, the amount of money required from Bartholomew County taxpayers for the project will be limited to $61,650.
The bid was awarded by the Bartholomew County commissioners after county highway engineer Danny Hollander took a week to study Milestone’s proposal.
Since the full depth reclamation work will require consistently warmer temperatures, construction won’t get underway until late May or early June, Hollander said. Full depth reclamation involves grinding up old asphalt, injecting an asphalt binder, pulverizing the material and rolling the entire mixture back on it’s original location. The result is a stronger base for a new road.
Proposed developments involving Hartman Drive, which includes 65-acres of land north of Hardees, date back to 1990. In 2017, the property north of the restaurant was rezoned from agriculture to commercial. An access road to the new development was proposed that begins on the north side of Hartman Drive, continues to the new development and ends with a cul-de-sac.
In the summer of 2018, developers asked city and county planners to have the 65-acres divided into 13 lots. Breeden Commercial Realtors owner Mark Pratt said that commercial and retail businesses were mostly being considered for the development.
However, the project was tabled at least twice after planners brought up more than 20 revisions.
But a priority list from the Bartholomew County Highway Department from last year stated that Hartman Drive was among the three county roads in most need of repairs or upgrades.
This year, the proposed development appears on the Breeden Realtors Commercial web page as the “I-65 Exit 76 Retail Sites/Multi-family Land” at 12180 U.S. 31, Edinburgh. It has a total lot size of 34.7 acres, with each parcel ranging in size from one acres to 15.5 acres, the website states.
The latest proposal still calls for a road extending north from Hartman Drive to the development, Breeden associate broker Andy Roberts said. But instead of ending with a cul-de-sac, the new road would connect with the highway opposite of North Presidential Way, Roberts said.
Under the current plan, cars and trucks would be provided multiple ways of getting on and off the busy highway near Interstate 65 safely from both Hartman and the new extension.
The development has received a preliminary plat approval, said Jeff Bergman, city and county planner.
