Nearly finished

The largest road project in Jay County in several decades is nearing completion.
Construction on Indiana 26 between Indiana 67 and Indiana 1 is expected to be complete before Thanksgiving, Jay County engineer Dan Watson said.
The $8.2-million project that began in May includes reconstruction of the road, elimination of the two 90-degree turns at county road 300 west and installation of a new bridge over Brooks Creek just east of Indiana 1.
Watson said last week that Milestone Construction, the lead contractor on the project, is down to the finishing touches before the road can be reopened. Those include adding a final 1.5-inch layer of asphalt, putting up guardrails along the new bridge and adding striping. There will also be corrugated warning strips along each side of the road as well as in the center to alert drivers when they go off course.
The work has been more in depth than other local INDOT projects because it is a "full depth reclamation" rather than just an overlay. It included grinding about 14 inches of the existing 18-inch-thick road, grading it and adding cement to create a new road bed. Asphalt is then added on top of the base.
"You’re building a new road, basically," said Watson. "Most of the state roads it’s just either chip-seal or they’ll come in and mill an inch off and put an inch back on."
The deteriorating state of the road was among the factors that required the rebuild, as well as widening lanes from the previous 8 to 9 feet to a width of 11 feet with 2-foot shoulders. 

In addition to the new bridge, metal culverts have been replaced with the new concrete variety, and ditches have been added to both sides of the road in order to help with drainage.
The other major change is the elimination of the 90-degree turns at county road 300 West. The new road will feature a gradual curve to the north beginning about a half-mile west of county road 200 West and continuing just past county road 300 West. The new alignment led to the removal of sections of county road 300 West, which will now dead-end north of Division Road and resume again from Indiana 26 heading north.
The previous 90-degree turns had been the frequent sites of accidents, including three between January 31 and April 1 prior to the start of construction this year.
"The alignment was terrible," said Watson, adding that he expects the new design to improve safety. "The drainage was completely horrible. That’s why the road was deteriorating as bad as it was. It was way too narrow.
"When two trucks met each other, it was just dangerous."
The project will also eliminate the curved section of road that currently connects county road 200 West to Indiana 26.
The final 1.5-inch layer of asphalt is expected to be laid beginning this week, with striping and other finishing work to follow.
Watson noted that some work, such as repaving of areas used as truck routes during construction — Division Road and county road 50 North — and reseeding may need to wait until 2017, but that the majority should be complete within the next few weeks.
He expects the complete rebuild of the road to keep it maintenance-free for about a decade.
"They shouldn’t have to do anything to it for 10 years," he said. "And then it should probably be resurfaced every five years (after that)."
The project has been in the works since the 1990s. The state purchased $1.6 million worth of rights-of-way along 7.6 miles of the road in 2009, the same year Indiana 26 was rebuilt between Indiana 1 and Hartford City. But the work between Indiana 26 and Indiana 67 was delayed for budgetary reasons.
“We want to keep all of our roads and bridges in as good of condition as possible,” said INDOT spokesman Nathan Riggs earlier this year. “We try to target the projects that need it the most.”
He noted then that the work was originally expected to be a two-year job, but that INDOT and utility companies — gas and electrical lines had to be moved for the project — were able to work together to tighten that timeline.