Despite a long line of warning signs, road crews have not scheduled a time to lay new asphalt on East 25th Street, between Talley Road and State Road 9.
The current signs, which include a number stating “one-lane road ahead,” are intended to advise motorists to be on the lookout for crews removing the berm along the edges of the road, Bartholomew County Highway Superintendent Dwight Smith said.
A berm is essentially a raised shoulder designed to create a barrier between the road and private property, as well as keep run-off precipitation away from sensitive areas. But it’s standard procedure to remove the berm before new asphalt is put down and replace it when the blacktopping is completed.
The county has already sliplined most pipes under East 25th Street., Smith said. Sliplining involves installing a smaller, “carrier pipe” into a larger “host pipe,” grouting the annular space between the two pipes, and sealing the ends. This was also done in advance to speed up the starting time for putting down a new blacktop on East 25th Street, he said.
The five miles of new asphalt on East 25th Street is one of the largest projects on this year’s 16.6 mile overlay project, county highway engineer Danny Hollander said. This year’s entire overlay project has an estimated price tag of $2.24 million. The county paid $2.8 million to repave 27.5 miles of road last year.
During both years, the county received a $1 million matching grant through the state’s Community Crossings program.
Under normal circumstances, the winning contractor in an overlay program agrees to pay a lower amount in exchange for doing the work on their own time schedule whenever there’s a break from other projects. The contractor is only required to get everything done before the end of the construction season.
But since East 25th Street makes up over 30% of this year’s entire overlay program, Hollander said the contractor may want to get the work done sooner than later in order to receive the money.
While there is an effort to fast-track the East 25th Street project, Hollander says there are also a few reasons to believe it might take longer than expected to get started. For example, additional projects may be considered by the commissioners that could cause a delay.
In addition, the county is seeking bids on upgrading the concrete bridge on East 25th Street over Clifty Creek.
Hollander said the commissioners may want to delay the start of overlay work until after the bridge contract is awarded, so the five miles of heavily-traveled thoroughfare won’t have to be closed twice in the same construction season.
The bridge work, which will include strengthening sections more than a century old, is intended to be a temporary fix to extend the life of the bridge by another ten years, Hollander said. County officials are hopeful they will be able to obtain federal dollars during that span of time to replace the entire structure, he said.
The temporary fix might be applied in two different ways. It could involve putting down latex modified concrete or an epoxy coating. Both approaches are capable of temporarily smoothing out rough surfaces on a concrete bridge deck, Hollander said.
