Officials from the Town of New Palestine have noticed preliminary stake markings near their ADA ramps even though the major INDOT U.S. 52 road project won’t officially start until July 2023 and span two years along U.S. 52 from Ind. 9 throught I-465.
Kristy Deer | Daily Reporter
NEW PALESTINE — The Indiana Department of Transportation’s U.S. 52 Corridor Bundle project has ballooned from an $8 million project to $21 million, officials said this week.
The road work includes projects just east of Ind. 9 and U.S. 52 all the way west to I-465 in Indianapolis with the scope of the project running through Marion, Hancock and Shelby Counties.
While there was preliminary talk from state officials that the major road project could get underway as soon as this summer, actual road construction will not start until the summer of 2023 and last through 2024, INDOT officials said.
That means officials in New Palestine will have to wait longer than expected to get a turn lane installed at the section of U.S. 52 and CR 550W, a place that has caused traffic issues in the past.
“The overall project just became larger,” New Palestine Town Manager Jim Robinson said. “With those ADA ramps they’ll be working on, we can only assume the time frame with getting material and labor in the construction field is tough, so it’s harder to get things done.”
In the county, some of the project will include overlay work all along U.S. 52. Overlay is any operation that consists of laying either Portland cement concrete or a hot mix asphalt over an existing pavement structure.
Officials will also widen an auxiliary lane and improve an intersection at CR 550W, construct a roundabout at U.S. 52 at Ind. 9 in Shelby County, plus overlay work on several bridges along U.S. 52 as well as make Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ramp requirement improvements throughout the project.
Mallory Duncan, the state communications director for INDOT, said the project is larger than when they first announced the major road work on U.S. 52 in 2021. However, she noted the turn lane expansion New Palestine officials believed could be installed as soon as this summer will not begin until July 2023, with the actual construction coming in 2024.
“We pulled that project out of the large U.S. 52 project because it has a lot of environmental and right-of-way challenges,” Duncan said. “We will have to take some right of ways for that turn lane, and that would have put the timeline of that huge U.S. 52 project at risk.”
It means the turn lane in New Palestine will have a special contract but is supposed to be done at the same time as the rest of the U.S. 52, three-county-wide work.
“It will still come at the same time as the rest of the project,” Duncan said. “The start of the project will be in 2023 and span two years with the work on the turn lane happening in 2024.”
Robinson noted town officials are glad the issue is getting addressed and understand construction projects take time.
“We’ve had a lot of accidents right there at 550W, so the sooner we can get it done, the better,” Robinson said.
Robinson noted 2023-24 is not that far out and said town officials are excited about the work being done by INDOT and county officials in the coming years, mentioning the extension of Stinemyer Road.
“With the work the state and the county are doing, New Palestine will benefit in the coming years,” Robinson said. “A lot will happen within two years that will make a positive difference.”
New Palestine officials noted some of their ADA ramps have already been marked by state officials in town. Duncan said there are all kinds of preliminary scope projects that must happen before actual construction.
Duncan also noted the increase in the cost of the whole project jumping from the estimated $8 to actual $21 million doesn’t really include anything new from their original plans released in 2021, but that the full scope of the project is now clearer and the cost of supplies has increased.
