VERNON — The road construction season in Jennings County kicked into gear when Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) trucks and crews rolled into the community Monday to begin work on State Roads 3 and 7.
A $787,000 INDOT roadway improvement project will extend from the intersection of Roads 3 and 7 south of Vernon to just south of U.S. 50 in North Vernon.
“The road was in bad repair and a lot of the issues were beyond repair to the point that major work had to be done,” said Jeff Evans, INDOT North Vernon office Jennings unit foreman.
The project will include re-paving of sections of roadways and replacement of curb ramps in Vernon.
Evans said he didn’t foresee any major interruption of traffic patterns during this project.
“There will be some work to move around, but I don’t see any major problems,” Evans said, adding that the completion date of the project is November. “I can’t imagine that it will actually go much past summer.”
A second INDOT project to improve and repave State Road 7 between North Vernon and Columbus will begin sometime in July.
Evans said the stretch of State Road 7 between North Vernon and Columbus was, at one time, the busiest roadway in the state.
“Now it is just one of the busiest roads in the area, but it still travels around 12,000 vehicles a day,” Evans said.
The road work between Columbus and North Vernon could present a few more challenges than the other project, because of the higher volume of traffic, Evans said.
Both projects should be done by early autumn, he added.
