INDOT shifts back to asphalt

Indiana Department of Transportation was quick to change course.

Responding to concerns from local officials about closing U.S. 27 between Portland and Bryant for concrete reconstruction this summer, INDOT officials told Jay County engineer Dan Watson this morning that the project has been shifted back to asphalt and will thus not require a road closure.

Watson said he expects the project to be on the bid-letting list for early spring and to go ahead as scheduled for this summer.

“It’ll still take a good bit of the summer, but at least it’ll be done under traffic instead of having to close it,” Watson said. “I’m just glad they’re going to do it under traffic. It’s just going to be so much better.”

Bidding for the project had been scheduled for this month, but Watson reported to Jay County Commissioners on Monday that it had been moved to April because of a decision to rebuild that section of road in concrete instead of asphalt. Using concrete would have required the road to be closed, whereas one lane of traffic can be maintained if it is milled down and repaved with asphalt.



Watson expressed a variety of concerns about the plan to close the road, including that the stretch of U.S. 27 between Portland and Bryant is the most heavily traveled highway in the county and there is no logical north-south detour for local traffic. (The official truck detour would have utilized Indiana 18, Indiana 1 and Indiana 26.)

“I don’t have a problem with going with concrete pavement,” he said this morning. “My biggest concern was I have no good detours.”

He also noted that such a road closure would cause problems with traffic during the Tri-State Gas Engine and Tractor Association Show that brings tens of thousands of visitors each August to Jay County Fairgrounds and complicate delivery of components for Bluff Point Wind Energy Center, which is scheduled for construction from May through December in southern Jay and northern Randolph counties.

Commissioner Doug Inman on Monday said he would contact INDOT officials and bring up the issue with Sen. Travis Holdman and Rep. Greg Beumer in an effort to change back to the original asphalt plan.

Watson said this morning that he also called the INDOT commissioner’s office Wednesday to voice his concerns. He heard back this morning from representatives from INDOT’s Greenfield District, and they told him the plans had shifted back to using asphalt.