A map showing where the mircrosurfacing will take place across Hancock County.
Provided map
HANCOCK COUNTY — As the summer months continue, so do road closures and projects.
This past Tuesday, Hancock County engineer Gary Pool updated Hancock County Commissioners on the current status of multiple road closures currently happening, and some new items that will be occurring soon.
A road closure on CR 600W, just north of CR 200S, starts today and continues until Saturday, allocating three days for installation of piping. Pool mentioned that there are a total of three pipes that need to be installed, and the plan is to have all three done at once to finish quickly and open back up for public access.
Other closures are due to reopen soon. Pool said that the entrance to the airport should be opened Aug 13., and the closure at CR 700W and CR 200N for the construction of the new roundabout should go on for another 50 to 60 days.
The bridge that is currently out on CR 300 N, just west to CR 100 W is set to be open in December.
One project that started this past week is the micro surfacing of CR 600 E, which will have intermittent closures. Pool explained that microsurfacing for this area is about three quarters of an inch of an asphalt overlay.
“We usually do an inch and a quarter to two and a half, but if the road’s in decent shape, we’ll do a microsurface,” Pool said.
Following that, closures for CR 200 W just south of U.S. 40 will take place for a similar process of microsurfacing, but the pavement will also be fixed as well. Pool said that will consist of milling and reconstituting the pavement.
Waterways were also discussed at the commissioner’s meeting.
Pool said a section of Sugar Creek off of CR 100 S had been brought into question on if the stream is considered navigable. An example of navigable water given by Pool is a waterway that could support kayaking.
Pool said he was nearly certain the stream is considered navigable, and that “generally, the federal law is if a log can float down it at any time during the year, a commercial log, that is kind of what defines a navigable stream.”
However, Pool wants the county attorney to determine whether the stream is or is not navigable before an access point is provided to get onto the stream.
Pool told the commissioners that he and Scott Benkie, county attorney, would have to look at and answer the legal question, “is Sugar Creek a navigable stream, in regards to public access.”
“If it is a permitted use, then the commissioners can decide whether or not they want to provide that access or not,” Pool said.
If the stream ends up being permitted as navigable, Pool said the public can use it whether commissioners add an access point or not; however, the public can only use the water, not the land.
Pool said people who own property by the stream own the property on the sides of the stream and the stream bed on the bottom, but the water is owned by the federal and state governments, which would allow for public use if navigable.
Pool mentioned an issue could arise if people get upset about the public use since some homes have the stream run close to or through their backyards.
Once the decision on whether public access is permitted and legal for activity such as kayaking, the next steps will happen. If the stream is determined unnavigable, not further action is needed.
