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Last updated on Friday, March 8, 2013
(UNDATED) - The Ind. 37 and U.S. 150/Ind. 56 project is back on schedule. Winter weather impeded the project.
INDOT Project manager Chris Gentry says in addition to the upgrades now under construction, two other segments of work will enhance access from Lawrence County to Ind. 64.
Gentry says they are scheduled for letting in December. One is from about two miles west of Paoli on Ind. 150/Ind. 56 going northwest to the First Street intersection. And then the other one picks up at First Street, goes around the square and goes north about a mile or a mile and a half.
Gentry says the Ind. 37 project should be completed in November, weather permitting. The project will make Ind. 37 into a super-two route from Mitchell's south side to the north side of Paoli.
INDTO Crews are currently focused on getting grading and the sinkhole mitigations done north of Orleans.
While Orleans crews are finishing up the waterline relocation and finishing sidewalks and ramps. South of Orleans INDOT crews are doing grading work on the right of way.
U.S. 150/Ind. 56
The completion date for improvements on U.S. 150/Ind. 56 is July 2014. The work is divided into two segments with the first stretch running from Prospect east for a little more than five miles. "The (first) project is about 50 percent complete," Gentry said. "They've got some ... grading on the Castle Knoll area. They have to tie the alignments back together. You'll see that taking place this summer. (There are) a couple of bridge rehabs they'll be working on."
A new bridge is under construction about three miles west of Paoli. "The bridge is done, basically, just the grading to get the alignment in. That will take place this summer," Gentry said.
The second segment of the U.S. 150/Ind. 56 work involves the stretch from 5.2 miles east of Prospect to about 650 feet west of County Road 225 West (Indian Boundary Road) on the west side of Paoli (just west of the old Newberry Church). "You'll see the first phases of that take place this construction season," Gentry said.
The highway association has met quarterly for at least two decades to lobby for -- and hear updates on -- road improvements between Lawrence and Perry counties. The group's advocacy dates back to a time before Ind. 37 was converted to a four-lane route from the junction with U.S. 50 West to Mitchell's south side. Another project that helped to satisfy the infrastructure needs of business and community leaders from Lawrence, Orange, Crawford and Perry counties was the construction of a new road linking Ind. 64 near Eckerty to Interstate 64 near Doolittle Mills.
In 2004, the entire route was named the Frank O'Bannon Highway in recognition of the late Indiana governor who also had championed the improvements while he was a state legislator.
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