A total of 30 projects involving 22.16 miles of rural roads are on the first phase of this year’s Bartholomew County Overlay project.
Among the projects is an upgrade to Marr Road, just south of the Armuth Acres subdivision. New asphalt will be put down between County Roads 550N and 600N.
In 2018, local and state funds totaling $243,630 were approved to overlay and expand Marr Road, from Sawin Drive to County Road 550N, just west of Clifford. County Commissioner Carl Lienhoop said at the time that many residents wondered why work didn’t continue to Armuth Acres.
Financial limitations, as well as a need to save money to fix rural roads in the worst shape, were cited as the reason.
Another high-profile improvement this year will be a new blacktop on the north side of the Indiana Premium Outlets mall. More than a mile and a half of Presidential Way will be upgraded from U.S. 31 to County Road 800N.
The Phase One overlay list was distributed less than a week after the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) announced Bartholomew County government would receive $990,928 through the Community Crossings program. The county is required to match this state grant on a 50-50 basis. The maximum amount that a local government entity can receive through Community Crossings is $1 million annually.
If the matching grant had not been awarded, the county’s annual overlay program would have been reduced to about 11 miles this year, county highway engineer Danny Hollander said in an earlier interview..
Those who were inconvenienced last month as a new blacktop was placed on County Road 450N (Nortonburg Road) might think the overlay program is already underway. However, that 5.73 mile repaving – from Marr Road to State Road 9 – was scheduled to be finished last year. Last October, the county decided to delay the County Road 450N project until this spring after a supply chain disruption delayed the arrival of required box culverts.
This year’s overlay program actually won’t begin for several weeks, Hollander said. Several steps are ahead that include collecting signatures from INDOT officials and receiving permission to prepare the roads for improvements prior to the state completing the paperwork, he said.
When these preliminary steps are completed, the county highway department has to receive permission to solicit bids, and wait a number of weeks before bids are received. Then, it takes at least one week to examine proposals to ensure the lowest-bidding contractor meets all specifications.
So the earliest that this year’s overlay program might begin is mid-June, Hollander estimates. However, contractors are allowed to do overlay work on their own schedule, so that their crews can first tend to higher-paying private contracts, the highway engineer said.
Hollander expects overlay work will continue intermittently though late fall, adding it’s possible one or two projects might have to wait until next spring if the weather isn’t cooperative.
But the good news is that a recent inspection of over 700 miles of county road showed only two roads that are in bad shape, the highway engineer said.
“Mostly, we just came across some potholes,” Hollander said. “And we’ve got most of those filled in now.”
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CLAY TOWNSHIP (1.51 miles)
- County Road 525E, from Base Road to 100S (1.01 miles)
- County Road 525E, from 50N to Base Road (0.5 mile)
CLIFTY TOWNSHIP (2.26 miles)
- County Road 1125E, from S.R. 46 to 300N (1.09 miles)
- County Road 50N, from 850E to 1000E (1.17 miles)
COLUMBUS TOWNSHIP (1.04 miles)
- Country Road 330W, from Lowell Road to the township line (0.93 mile)
- County Road 400N, from Marr Road to Old Marr Road (0.11 mile)
COLUMBUS/HARRISON (1.73 miles)
- County Road 200N, from 325W to 500W (1.73 miles)
FLAT ROCK TOWNSHIP (2.5 miles)
- Marr Road, from 550N to 600N (0.52 mile)
- County Road 400N, from Old Marr Road to East terminus (0.47 mile)
- County Road 575E, from 800N to 900N (1.01 miles)
- County Road 575E, from 900N to 950N (0.5 mile)
GERMAN TOWNSHIP (2.73 miles)
- County Road 100W, from 900N to 1000N (1.04 miles)
- County Road 100W, from 800N to 900N (1.02 miles)
- Presidential Way, from Executive Drive to CR 800N (0.57 mile)
- Presidential Way, from U.S. 31 to Executive Drive (0.1 mile)
HARRISON TOWNSHIP (0.49 mile)
- Carr Hill Road (CR 150S), from 475W to 525W (0.49 mile)
HAW CREEK TOWNSHIP (1.84 miles)
- County Road 1020E, from 1000N to Stafford Road (0.73 miles)
- County Road 640N, from 1050E to terminus (0.57 mile)
- Stafford Road, from 1025E to 1075E (0.54 miles)
OHIO TOWNSHIP (1.96 miles)
- County Road 300S, from 550W to 475W (0.74 mile)
- County Road 300S, from 475W to 400W (0.72 mile)
- County Road 550W, from 450S to Deaver Road (0.5 mile)
OHIO/WAYNE (1 mile)
- County Road 550W, from Deaver Road to 300S (1 mile)
ROCK CREEK TOWNSHIP (2.36 miles)
- County Road 1000E, from 400S to 500S (1 mile)
- County Road 400S, from 1100E to 1200E (1 mile)
- County Road 750E, from S.R. 46 to 200S (0.36 mile)
SAND CREEK TOWNSHIP (2.6 miles)
- County Road 175E, from 400S to 350S (0.59 mile)
- County Road 250E, from 400S to 500S (1 mile)
- County Road 300E, from 500S to 600S (1.01 miles)
WAYNE TOWNSHIP (0.66 mile)
- County Road 1000S, from County Road 60E to West terminus (0.66 mile)
TOTAL: 22.16 miles
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