New Highway Department construction begins near fairgrounds
Nov. 14—GREENSBURG — Decatur County Highway Supervisor Todd Houk recently presented the Decatur County Commissioners with invoices resulting from work now underway near the fairgrounds associated with the construction of a new Highway Department headquarters.
In early 2020, local officials decided that the existing property housing the DCHD at the intersection of Base Road and Ind. 46 East was no longer big enough to appropriately serve the needs of the highway department. At that point, a search was begun for a new location. The site found is on 250 West, on the far southeast corner of the Decatur County Fairgrounds.
Many plans for the site are still undecided, but the portion of 250 W. across from the Decatur County Purdue Extension Office has been widened to accommodate construction and pedestrian traffic.
The invoices submitted were an application for payment from the consulting firm enlisted for the build as well as an invoice to move an existing sewer pipe that serves the area under construction.
"Last week, we widened that road to 24 foot from the intersection (of 250 West and Park Road) all the way down," Houk said.
Work will continue to remove five trees at the site and draw the radius of the intersection "so that when we're done, we won't have to come back until we pave the road," Houk said.
The location will require newly installed 10-inch supply pipe installed underground to the bottom of the Park Road hill, with buried lines continuing all the way to the Park Road/West Davis Street intersection, the location of the former Corner Store building.
"Utilities on that road are a nightmare, and they (those utilities) will be buried," Houk said.
The project will require right-of-way purchases from landowners bordering Park Road.
Houk said he hoped that the property owners bordering the project will want to settle. "Otherwise, it will be 'imminent domain," he said. "And I'm sure they won't want to do that, especially if they're nice neighbors."
USI Construction has been awarded the Park Road project, and although completion is scheduled for November of 2023, intermittent dates for the different phases of the project are not yet firm.
Contact Bill Rethlake at 812-651-0876 or email bill.rethlake@greensburgdailynews.com
