Trees are going down north of New Palestine in order to make way for utilities and a widening of Mt. Comfort Road and a roundabout, according to Hancock County Engineer Gary Pool.
The road is being widened to make room for, shoulders a biking/walking trail and turn lanes in order to increase safety along the road. Currently, with no shoulders, bike lanes or sidewalks, the area is dangerous for bikers or pedestrians traveling along the road, as there’s no space for cars to go around them without going into the other lane and oncoming traffic. This construction seeks to alleviate those issues. Outside of the additional turn lanes, the road will largely remain at two lanes.
This widening is also pushing power lines further out, necessitating the removal of trees that would otherwise be too close. The county previously bought the right-of-way for the road widening project, including the trees, according to Pool.
“I hate cutting down the trees. I’m an outdoorsman, but the power company, obviously and rightfully, doesn’t want any trees near the power lines,” Pool said.
This process will extend from the rail line at the northern border of the New Palestine town limits to the recently completed road widening on Mt. Comfort road, completing this section of the project for the county, which has been ongoing for the past six years.
As a part of this construction, the county will be adding a roundabout at CR 300S similar to the others along the Mt. Comfort Corridor, which Pool says will prevent multiple injuries per year from accidents in the area.
The changes to the road mirror the work that has been done along the northern half of Mt. Comfort Road, with the same widening and roundabout processes being repeated from McCordsville all the way down now to New Palestine.
Pool says that the county’s new parks department anticipates replanting the removed trees in order to replace what was cut down along Mt. Comfort road, albeit not in their original locations.
“It’ll help the bikers and stuff, people headed to Starbucks and [other businesses] in New Palestine will have more time off the road,” Pool said. “It’s a busy road, especially when Interstate 70 is closed it gets a lot of tractor trailers on it, so it’ll allow more space for the cars to stay away from each other.”
