Leaders hope none of the projects on tap for 2022 will lead to the level of traffic chaos that occurred during the State Street reconstruction project this year.
File photo
GREENFIELD – 2022 is set to be another ambitious year for road projects in Hancock County, though hopefully not one with quite as many traffic problems.
Greenfield street commissioner Tyler Rankins said he has plans to leverage his department’s funding to secure grants from the state government.
“We have about $900,000 to spend, and we’re going to try to match it dollar for dollar” with grant money, he said. That will include submitting applications to the Indiana Department of Transportation’s Community Crossings program to fund many of the city’s projects.
Rankins said plans for work in 2022 include about 12 miles of city streets. Major projects will include repaving Apple Street and New Road from one end of the citys limits to the other, as well as mill and resurfacing work on Blue Road from J.B. Stephens Elementary School to New Road.
With a number of major projects closing roads and some closures overlapping, 2021 has been a year of major traffic delays in Greenfield. Rankins said the projects planned for 2022 are unlikely to bring the same issues.
“I don’t think it could get any worse, but I’m kind of knocking on wood when I say that,” he said.
The Hancock County Highway Department expects to have an equally busy year with its own projects. Those will include the replacement of a bridge across from the Indianapolis KOA campground on County Road 200N in the Mt. Comfort area, as well as repaving of CR 700W between County Roads 300N and 400N; and 300N between County Roads 400W and 300W.
County engineer Gary Pool said he hopes to have the current construction work on Mt. Comfort Road completed within the next month. After that, however, the county will commence work on the road north of the current construction zone, including the anticipated addition of multiple roundabouts.
“That’s a big project; it’ll probably take two years,” Pool said.
A map available on the Hancock County Highway Department’s website shows the numerous streets and roads in Hancock County that are set to receive microsurfacing, repaving or chip-sealing work in 2022. Pool said he has actually received pushback from some neighborhoods where residents don’t want repairs to their roads, fearing it would lead to an increase in traffic.
“A lot of people would rather have a bad road, strangely, because they don’t want traffic,” Pool said.
Pool said he is optimistic that prices for materials will come down in 2022 and enable him to get more work done. He plans to apply for Community Crossings funding to apply to some projects and has appealed to INDOT to add new bridges and roundabouts.
INDOT is also planning for several projects in the county in 2022. According to the department’s Statewide Transportation Improvement Program, INDOT plans to conduct a countywide bridge inspection and inventory program that will begin in 2022.
It also plans to replace County Bridge 18 over Sugar Creek, located on CR 600E north of County Road 900N; and to conduct minor structural work on State Road 9 and State Road 109.
In New Palestine, INDOT plans an $8 million resurfacing project along U.S. 52 and also is scheduled to construct a turn lane at County Road 550W.