Another road closure is set for Evansville's Walnut Street project

EVANSVILLE – An Evansville road project that’s lingered for more than a year will see another closure this week – but the project’s engineer says the end is in sight, even if it’s still months away.

The intersection of Walnut Street and Boeke Road will close for a maximum of 30 days starting this week. It’s part of a $13 million Evansville Water & Sewer Utility overhaul that's seen multiple sections of Walnut shut down, torn apart and rebuilt since spring 2022.

The Boeke closure will temporarily affect traffic going into nearby Harper Elementary when school starts in August.

Parents or busses coming from the south will have to take official detours to reach the school, but the project engineer, American Structurepoint’s Josh Craig said recent re-openings of side streets around Walnut should help.

“That has alleviated a lot of issues for those residents,” he said. “Because closing those off and having to come through Boeke definitely was a pain.”

Once the Boeke work is finished, there will be another 30-day closure at Vann and Walnut, followed by a similar shutdown at the project’s most complicated intersection: Weinbach and Walnut.

Craig said despite all the work left to be done, the project is still on schedule and slated for completion around March 2024.

What’s the point of the project?

Since May 2022, workers have been installing new water mains and storm sewers from Weinbach to Vann avenues. The work has shut down Walnut for more than a mile, with only local traffic allowed between Boeke and Weinbach.

By the time the project wraps up, more than a mile of new PVC pipe will run under the asphalt.

Technically the project was supposed to be done in “phases” – with Weinbach to Boeke in Phase 1 and Boeke to Vann in Phase 2, among other legs of the project – but Craig said the phases “kind of morphed into one another.”

“There have been times we’ve been working on Phase 1 and Phase 2 all at once just because of logistics,” he said.

The hard closure at Weinbach and Walnut

A major issue has been Weinbach and Walnut.

At Boeke and Walnut, workers set up staggered barricades allowing Walnut residents to pass. But there’s a hard closure down the street at Weinbach.

With a staggered barricade there, motorists were trying to turn left from Weinbach onto Walnut. If another vehicle on Walnut happened to be squeezing around the staggered barricade, it could block the Weinbach car’s path and lead to all sorts of issues.

Having that intersection even partially open put motorists and the project’s workers at risk, Craig said. So the hard closure will stay in place until at least the first of the new year.

“Some people don’t use common sense as much,” he said. “And we try to eliminate that (problem).”

How should Harper Elementary school traffic avoid the 30-day Boeke closure?

According to Craig, there are official detours for north- and southbound drivers, complete with signs directing motorists around the work.

Drivers should expect liberal use of Vann to go north or south and Sycamore Street to move east or west. Those coming from the south can also cross Walnut using one of the many reopened side streets, although they're largely residential, meaning traffic would move slowly.

What still needs to be done?

For Phase 1, Craig said workers still need to do some concrete and sod work and of course add the final paving, signage and road markings.

According to the project’s website, Phase 2 is still slated for paving, curb and gutter work, and yard restoration.

Each step has its own timeline, but as of now, the entire project is slated to be completed by March 29, 2024. That’s at “maximum,” Craig said. As long as everything goes well – and it largely has thus far – the majority of the world could be completed around Thanksgiving.

“We’ve had a decent summer so far,” he said. “If it’s not a wet fall and we don’t have a crazy winter, I don’t foresee that end date being an issue whatsoever.”

This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Another road closure is set for Evansville's Walnut Street project