When we sat down with Mayor Sally Hutton today for a meeting she shared a valuable and probably unknown piece of information, along with good news on the road construction front.
Each year Sally oversees a project for children in the community called “If I Were Mayor.” And she said the overwhelming response is “I would plan road projects better.” And here is the virtually unknown piece of information: the Mayor nor city government is in charge of road construction—those projects are overseen by the State of Indiana.
When I say virtually unknown this does not include the young children who participate in this project each year. But the rest of us probably have always assumed that this would be the role of the city Mayor.
However Mayor Hutton does know the time line of each project and shared that information with us. And there is hope on the horizon—an end to the multiple detours we’ve all come to know in the past few months.
Scheduled for September 7th, 2010, construction on US 40 will be done on one side and begin on the other. Ultimately when all is complete we will have five lanes and a long awaited traffic light on that stretch of US 40. The second phase, according to Sally Hutton will go quicker than the first.
US 27 is scheduled for completion by the end of the year. And the mayor shared that both of these bigger projects are ahead of schedule.
Also, Test Road should be reopened by September 15, 2010. Other projects such as the bridge on NW 5th should be nearer completion though a specific date is not known at this time.
Another possible unknown fact—these projects are not being funded by the stimulus fund, which expired months ago, but rather from the revenue from the 75 year lease of the Indiana Toll Road over four years ago.
In the end, we will all be able to enjoy the nice new roads and bridges in our community. As Sally Hutton said, under the circumstances people seem to be taking all of the inconvenience well. We thought the citizens of Richmond and Wayne County would like to know that there is an end in sight to what has been a rather messy summer of road construction.
Thanks to GoWayneCounty.com member BobE for telling us about the INDOT map which shows all construction in Richmond and throughout Indiana. You can check on projects and get up to date information on their status 24/7 by clicking on the symbols on the map.
0 comments