Hoover Road ‘toll road’ sign was a prank
No, you will not have to pay $1 each time you drive on Hoover Road.
An orange sign was placed at the Hoover Road bridge in Gatesville on April Fool’s Day stating that the road may become a toll road on or after April 1. E-Z Pass would be accepted, according to the official-looking sign.
“Our phones started blowing up at about 8 a.m. … (People were saying) ‘How are we supposed to pay our tolls?’” said Brown County Highway Superintendent Mike Magner.
During the Brown County Commissioners meeting April 3, commissioner Diana Biddle said that the board wanted to award “the best April Fool’s joke ever” to the person who put the sign up. No one claimed credit for it at the meeting.
“Whoever did this went to an extreme amount of effort. It’s a very nice sign. If anybody wants to claim responsibility, you have my congratulations. This was pretty good,” she said.
Road closures: State Road 45, park entrance
- The closure of State Road 45 is now scheduled to start April 15, according to the Indiana State Department of Transportation. A small section between Indian Hill and Carmel Ridge roads will close for a culvert replacement. Work is expected to take five days.
- Visitors to Brown County State Park will need to use the park’s west gate entrance off State Road 46 West for the next month. The covered bridge at the north entrance to the state park, off State Road 46 East, is undergoing some rehabilitation, said Scott Manning, an INDOT media contact. The bridge was scheduled to close for the first time on April 8 for 30 days. A second 30-day closure also will occur later this year. Work will include placing riprap at the abutment; and replacing the siding, roofing, subfloor boards as needed, surface boards and the trusses in specific locations on the wooden covered bridge, Manning said. The bridge was built in 1838 by Henry Wolfe. It originally crossed Ramp Creek in Putnam County. It was moved to the state park in 1932. The bridge is the only surviving “double barreled” covered bridge in Indiana and one of only six in the nation, and is considered to be a historic structure by INDOT and the Department of Natural Resources’ Division of Historic Preservation and Archaeology.
