Hobart residents should start getting in the habit of using Mississippi Street and County Line Road as their north-south routes because come summer, they’ll be the only way to travel those directions directly.
With no fewer than six road projects in the works within city limits, local travel is going to be “miserable,” City Engineer Phil Gralik warned the City Council at its Wednesday night meeting. The first of those projects, Colorado Street at U.S. 30 north of Sam’s Club to the Home Depot, is slated to start next month, he said, and will limit the road to one direction heading north or south as construction progresses.
The Indiana Department of Transportation is also expected to award the contract for a second project on Colorado Street over the railroad tracks near 69th Avenue in May, he said. When it is awarded, crews will start work quickly, and Colorado could then be closed for up to 18 months while an overpass is built.
INDOT will also bid out in April a bridge replacement for Indiana 51 over Deep River south of St. Mary Medical Center on 61st Avenue, Gralik said. That project would close that road from late June to around Thanksgiving
A project for Third Street from Lake Park Avenue to Ash will also go out for bid in May, Gralik said, and travelers on it will be limited to one direction as work gets done on each side. The side that isn’t being worked on will have detour signs directing traffic, he said Friday.
The Third Street project will be paid by Community Crossings money, he said.
The city is also working with Lake County to replace the bridge on Wisconsin Street, Gralik said, but that work would start in the fall and would be done in Spring 2024. And Festival Park won’t escape construction, either, as pipes will be replaced under Deep River, he said.
Residents will get a reprieve from more roundabouts, though, as the one at 61st Avenue and Marcella Boulevard has been delayed because of all the other work going on, he said. Getting that paused for a year was tough, he added.
And County Line Road will become a nightmare to travel too once apple-picking season rolls around.
“(County Line Orchard) will have the road closed. We’re not going to be able to go south,” Councilman Josh Huddlestun, D-2. “We’ll need a helicopter.”
“It’s going to be quite a burden to the city,” Councilman Matt Claussen, D-At-large, added.
Gralik said the city will post updates about upcoming roadwork at hobartimprovements.com.
Michelle L. Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.