Public hearing set for Wednesday on taking curve out of County Home Road and 200S
By JESSICA BRICKER
A public hearing is scheduled for Wednesday, March 9, for the County Home Road and 200S curve correction project.
An open house will be held from 5 to 6 p.m. on Wednesday, followed by a presentation of the project from 6 to 6:30 p.m. at the Wells County Public Library. Then the public will have a chance to comment on the project’s proposal.
This follows a July 2021 informational meeting on the same project. In October, County Engineer Nate Rumschlag recommended — and received the commissioners’ approval — to not update the project to reflect input received during that informational meeting, which led to Butler, Fairman and Seufert to prepare potential alternatives for the project.
“Redesign and changes as presented … will cause the county to miss the letting date with Indiana Department of Transportation and will cause us to miss the fiscal year of our funding,” Rumschlag wrote in a report at the time.
Rumschlag told the commissioners in February that the purpose of next week’s meeting is for the engineering officials to hear from the public, and representatives can remain on site until the library closes at 8 p.m.
“The purpose of this project is to address the deteriorated pavement condition, inadequate lane and shoulder widths for this functional class of roadway and to correct the sight distance limitations created by the 90-degree road curve from 200S and County Home Road,” according to a legal notice in Friday’s News-Banner.
Initial construction is anticipated to begin in the spring of 2024.
“The project proposes to realign County Home Road (450E) a maximum of 750 feet to the west, eliminating the 90-degree turn at 200S. The current center point of the existing intersection of 200S and 450E will be moved 90 feet southeast to accommodate the realignment of County Home Road,” the notice said.
“This intersection will be improved, and roadways will have typical sections consisting of two 11-foot-wide asphalt travel lanes and 6-foot-wide usable shoulders,” the notice also said. “450E will be converted into a cul-de-sac south of the proposed realignment, approximately 0.07 mile north of the existing 90-degree curve to provide continued access to two residential properties. Drainage improvements will include the removal of the road from the Six Mile Creek floodway, new roadside ditches, storm water pipes, and erosion protection.”
The public comment period this round ends March 24.
jessica@news-banner.com
