The county will extend Stinemyer Road, which currently ends at County Road 550W, and connect it to County Road South 500W (Gem Road) by School Street near the administration building for Southern Hancock Schools. This view is from School Street looking west. This is where a new roundabout will also be added.
Tom Russo | Daily Reporter
NEW PALESTINE — The county and state have agreed to build a new road on the south edge of town that will help ease traffic on U.S. 52, long a goal of people in the community.
The work to extend Stinemyer Road less than a mile east to link with County Road 500W won’t get under way until 2025. But town and county leaders and officials with Southern Hancock Schools are thrilled the project is officially in the works.
The $3 million project has been designed to give drivers an alternate route when traveling east and west in New Palestine. It will also provide better connectivity from eastern Marion County and the western part of Hancock County when U.S. 52 is restricted or closed, officials said.
“It’s fully funded and is definitely happening,” said Gary Pool, county engineer. “It’s a slow wheel, but once it starts it doesn’t stop, and that wheel is turning.”
Pool has been working on trying to secure funding and finding the best route for the project for several years. Officials settled on a extension of Stinemyer Road that will require the acquisition of 7.48 acres of right-of-way. No trees will be cleared as part of the project.
The Stinemyer extension will have two small roundabouts, one on CR South County Road 500W (Gem Road) at School Street and the other where it currently ends on 550W, Pool said.
The extension, which will be about 0.67 of a mile long, will come out by the Southern Hancock administration building on School Street. That will create a logical route for drivers and buses entering and exiting the school’s campus.
Lisa Lantrip, superintendent for Southern Hancock schools, said in an email to the Daily Reporter the new road will be another significant step in reducing traffic on U.S. 52 in front of New Palestine High School.
“This has been one of our main goals throughout the NPHS renovation project,” Lantrip said.
Stinemyer Road runs west from 550W all the way to South Carroll Road (County Road 800W or County Line Road). Extending it to 500W seemed like the best route as an alternative to U.S. 52, Pool said.
As the town as grown over the past several years with more growth on the way, both town and county officials have expressed concern about the heavy traffic on U.S. 52. When they learned a state repaving project coming through next year wasn’t really going to address the congestion issue, local and county officials pushed hard for the extension of Stinemyer Road.
“That was the whole reason for doing this,” Pool said. “There is no fix on U.S. 52 — it’s just not doable unless they start buying up some houses, and that’s just not going to happen.”
Jim Robinson, town manager for New Palestine, said the town appreciates the work Pool and his office have done working with the town on this and other projects, including the new roundabout at County Roads 500w and 300S.
“These are county initiatives that we are benefiting from,” Robinson said. “The county has really helped us out trying to alleviate some real traffic issues.”
Robinson thinks the Stinemyer Road extension will provide an alternate route that drivers in New Palestine have never enjoyed.
“We’ll be able to keep school buses off of U.S. 52 all the way out to the county line if the district chooses to do that,” Robinson said.
