GREENFIELD — Crews will start milling a portion of West New Road on Thursday, Oct. 17, the first step in a nearly three-week resurfacing and redesign of the busy road, the city’s street superintendent says.
The project is called a road diet, similar to the recent re-striping on West U.S. 40. It will trim the four-lane road, between the roundabout at North Franklin Street and State Road 9, to two lanes of traffic with a center turn lane and two 5-foot bike lanes. Workers will also add a second left-turn lane from New Road north onto State Road 9 and realign the intersection across the state highway at East New Road.
Tyler Rankins, street superintendent for Greenfield, said once the contractor, Milestone Contractors of Indianapolis, finishes milling the road, workers will pour a new asphalt surface from Oct. 25-30, weather permitting. The final pavement markings on the road are slated to be added by Nov. 5.
Crews will work on one lane of New Road at a time, Rankins added, and the road will not close during construction. Traffic will remain open in each direction, shifting lanes when necessary, he said.
Jason Koch, city engineer, previously told the Daily Reporter that eliminating two lanes along New Road won’t hurt its traffic flow. A three-lane road with a center turn lane has a daily capacity of about 20,000 vehicles, Koch said. Traffic counts indicate nearly 12,000 vehicles travel New Road each day.
He also said adding a center turn lane will also help in reducing accidents from vehicles turning left onto side streets along New Road. A number of accidents occur near the entrance of Greenfield Banking Co., Koch said. The design will include a designated left-turn lane at the bank’s entrance.
From 2015 to 2017, 14 crashes along New Road, from Franklin Street to State Road 9, sent occupants to the hospital, according to a Indianapolis Metropolitan Planning Organization database.
The road redesign will also beef up the number of vehicles that can turn left onto State Road 9. New Road consistently backs up during weekday afternoons. As many as 900 vehicles pass through the intersection during its peak travel time, Koch has said. The new 180-foot left-turn lanes will hold about nine vehicles each, tripling the amount of space of the current 120-foot left-turn lane.
New Road has an abundance of truck and commercial traffic from several manufacturers, such as Keihin IPT Manufacturing, Stanley Black & Decker, Avery Dennison and Indiana Automotive Fasteners. Yamaha Marine Precision Propellers Inc. is also building a new facility in the 1600 block of West New Road.
Rankins said workers plan to soon finish resurfacing West Muskegon Drive, between Fields Boulevard and North Broadway Street; and Fields Boulevard, between New Road and Muskegon. All are concrete surfaces.
The full slate of road resurfacing left in the city, which also includes several asphalt streets in the Indigo Springs neighborhood and also sections of West North Street, West Boyd Avenue and School Street, will wrap up by Nov. 9 at the earliest, Rankins said.
The city received $1 million — and matched it using $1 million in local funds — from Indiana’s Community Crossings grant program for this year’s road work.
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The Greenfield Street Department has the following asphalt roads left on its schedule for completion, tentatively by Nov. 9:
West New Road, North Franklin Street to State Road 9
Indigo Drive, Runnymede Drive to East McKenzie Road
Indigo Court, cul-de-sac to Runnymede Drive
Runnymede Drive, Indigo Drive to Breakwater Drive
Grindstone Way/Court, Fairfield Drive/Circle to cul-de-sac
Marble Lane, Stonewall Drive to Grindstone Way/Court
Fairfield Drive, Stonewall Drive to Grindstone Way
Fairfield Circle, Grindstone Way to cul-de-sac
Stonewall Drive, North Blue Road to Marble Lane
Stonewall Circle, Marble Lane to cul-de-sac
West North Street, North Broadway Street to School Street
West Boyd Avenue, North Broadway Street to Oak Boulevard
School Street, West Boyd Avenue to West McKenzie Road
Source: Greenfield Street Department
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