Road closures have been a reality for Brown Countians within the last few months and it looks like they might be for the foreseeable future.
Brown County Highway Department Office Manager Sandra Pool said that construction on Gatesville road was scheduled to wrap up last week, with the primary focus this week being on Bear Creek and Branstetter roads.
“The Milestone crew (the paving crew) told us they were going to start working on June 10, but that’s all they told us,” Pool said. “They won’t tell us road closures until they are set to start working on the road.”
She said that the Highway Department shares daily updates on their facebook page (www.facebook.com/BCHighwayIN) to alert people when their roads are scheduled to close.
The Mount Liberty Road bridge closed in April because of engineering issues and is still under construction. The bridge will be replaced with a concrete bridge and is expected to be finished this month.
“The Mount Liberty Bridge is still under construction,” Pool said. “It’s still waiting on beams, you know how it is right now with shipping things. The projected finish date is the first part of July, hopefully before school starts back.”
Nashville has seen its share of construction and closures as well.
Nashville Town Manager Sandie Jones told the Democrat that the Indiana Department of Transportation’s (INDOT) latest project has been building a foundation for the new traffic light pole. Jones said they do not have specifics on completion dates but are looking toward the end of July.
“Once they get the foundations poured on all four corners, they will install new signal light poles and new string lights and a new signal box,” Jones said. “Once all those are in working order, they will remove the four original signal light poles. They will also need to restrip crosswalks at the Main and Van Buren and State Rd 46/135 intersection for the project to be complete.”
Jones said that they hope to have the final pole foundation and concrete poured on the courthouse corner by today. Construction will take a brief pause tomorrow through Sunday and will continue on Monday with potentially installing the new traffic light poles.
“The construction company is waiting on INDOTs approval to remove the covers from the pedestrian crossings at the CVS intersection,” Jones said. “They will also need the crosswalk striping completed at all the intersections. I am hopeful that they can have the project fully completed by July 26.”
There is an additional construction project taking effect in Nashville this week, with two crews working on the sewer lining project. The crews are scheduling overnight work to alleviate the traffic congestion, Jones said.
Earlier this week the crews were scheduled to work on the sewer lining east of Franklin Street in the field in addition to cleaning both the sewer and lateral lines and conducting camera inspections throughout Artist Drive.
According to Jones, sewer lining at the High School and overnight lining in the McDonald’s, IGA, Salt Creek Plaza, YMCA, Brown County Health and Living Community, Willow Manor, Hawthorne Hill, Quality Inn and Bear Hardware area is on the books for completion from Monday to July 12. The crews will also be working on lateral lining during the day on Artist Drive, leading to road closure.
The crews are scheduled to complete overnight lateral lining on Honeysuckle Lane from July 15 to July 19.
