Southern Crossing is likely to become the largest repaving project undertaken by Bartholomew County government this year.
Current estimates for putting a new blacktop down on the 2.5 miles of roads and bridges on the western portion of the crossing is $228,600.
That’s substantially more than any of the other 59 other projects listed in the $3 million project.
Often used by manufacturing employees who work in the Woodside industrial parks, Southern Crossing provides a vital link between U.S. 31 near Elizabethtown with State Road 11 near Walesboro.
But there’s a unique problem with Southern Crossing that may drive up the price tag even higher, county highway engineer Danny Hollander said.
Only eight years after getting new pavement, the well-traveled road has deteriorated much faster than anticipated — and no one knows for certain why it’s falling apart so quickly, Hollander said.
In order to understand the problem, more than 50 sample borings were taken from the road to be analyzed, Hollander said.
Depending on what discoveries are made, the department may have to make adjustments to the base and/or the asphalt mix used in the upcoming repaving, Hollander said.
A similar problem near a quarry on County Road 650E, west of Rockcreek Elementary School and south of State Road 46, is also being analyzed.
Due to uncertainties, Hollander expects both projects will be handled separately from the annual overlay work.
Overlay
For decades, rural Bartholomew County residents have compared how much tax money is being spent in each township to blacktop roads each year, as well as expressed opinions on why certain roads are chosen over others.
The sections of roads chosen for the annual overlay program are largely determined by Bartholomew County Highway Superintendent Dwight Smith, who inspects all 700-plus miles of county roads in late March and early April.
Roads determined to be in the worst shape get a new blacktop, while about twice as many roads receive a less-expensive, but messier chip-seal treatment.
Even with the exclusion of Southern Crossing, the 2018 overlay program still lists 38 miles of roads scheduled to receive a new blacktop. That’s up from 29 miles approved at this time last year.
Much of the revenue that allows for a larger overlay program comes from a 10-cent-a-gallon increase in gas taxes approved last year by the Indiana General Assembly.
Bids from contractors to perform this year’s overlay will be received by the Bartholomew County Commissioners on May 21. Unlike most contracts, the commissioners can approve more than one company to handle different overlay projects.
Higher prices
Bartholomew County taxpayers won’t be getting as big of a bang from their road dollars as they have in the past. Bids are expected to be noticeably higher than they have been in recent years for a variety of economic reasons.
Although most Indiana cities and counties have more money for road work, the number of qualified contractors is about the same. That puts the law of supply and demand on the contractor’s side.
Since gasoline prices have gone up over the past several months, contractors are expected to pass those costs on to local governments and others, Hollander said.
Higher material prices are already evident.
Liquid asphalt, which Hollander describes as a major component in traditional paving, is up an average of 11 percent from last year, according to bids received in April. Prices for other materials used in the overlay program are up to a lesser degree, Hollander said.
In the past, there has always been an understanding that if contractors offer to do the work at a low rate, they would be allowed to get work completed whenever their schedules allow. Up until a few years ago, all projects announced in the spring were completed by the time asphalt plants closed for the season in late autumn.
But a competitive state matching grant program debuting in 2016 changed that.
Uncertainty
While each of Indiana’s 92 counties receive a base amount for Phase I of planned road work, individual counties must apply for additional funding through the Community Crossings grant program — and wait several weeks to find out if additional funds will be awarded for a second phase.
In Bartholomew County, the determination of how many projects can be placed in Phase I is only made after the bids are studied and compared with available income.
As has been done the past two years, Bartholomew County will bid all of the planned overlay projects this month, but only award contracts on Phase I this spring.
Barring unforeseen problems, all Phase I projects will be done this year. But there’s no such guarantee about projects that will be placed on Phase II in the coming weeks.
In 2016, the Community Crossings grants were announced in August, which allowed the Phase II contracts to be approved in September. Due to mild fall weather, all Phase II projects were completed by the end of the year.
But in 2017, the county wasn’t so lucky. The state delayed announcing the grants until late September, and the grant money wasn’t received until four months after the announcement.
That meant contractors couldn’t work on 13 miles of overlay scheduled to be done last year until this spring.
