100-year-old find snarls Conner Street reconstruction project in Noblesville
The disruptive State Road 32 resurfacing project in downtown Noblesville will likely be delayed after construction crews discovered large gas tanks buried underground near the Hamilton County Government and Judicial Center.
The Indiana Department of Transportation found seven tanks near Conner and 6th streets and removed 1,000 gallons of groundwater, possibly mixed with some fuel, from them last week, said INDOT spokeswoman Kyleigh Cramer.
'A hot mess': Downtown construction roils Noblesville streets
Environmental experts will test the soil at the site Wednesday to make sure it is safe. If it is clean, crews will remove tanks that are under the street. Tanks under the sidewalks will be filled with dirt and remain so the sidewalks don't have to be destroyed.
If there is soil contamination all the tanks and dirt around it will need to be excavated.
The project, to replace century-old bricks underneath the road surface, has closed parts of Conner Street from 14th Street to 6th Street since April 1 and was scheduled to last about three months, with a finish date of July 15, Cramer said.
The testing could delay the project but Cramer could not say by how long until soil tests come back.
Hamilton County historian David Heighway said at least one of the tanks was broken open at the top.
“You can see they must have smacked into the top of it but it looks pretty empty,” Heighway said.
Realtor and amateur historian Kurt Meyer said he was tipped off about the tanks, did some research and found they could date back 100 years.
He said in the 1880s that area of Hamilton County used to be a livery, where horses were rented or kept for out-of-town visitors. But after the invention of the automobile liveries died out and were replaced with car repair shops and gas stations starting around 1920.
Meyer found a map drawn by the Sanborn Fire Insurance company that showed five tanks with up to 550 gallons were buried in the area next to garages.
Likely, they were never reported to the government.
“Nowadays there are environmental laws that document them and when they were removed,” Meyer said. “A hundred years ago there was no regulation.”
The State Road 32 project will be completed in four phases from just west of State Road 37 to across the White River and is scheduled to be finished by the end of 2024. It is part of a $10 million INDOT project that includes improvements on three State Road 37 intersections.
The construction comes while a Hamilton County roundabout project is underway at the intersection of Allisonville Road and 146th Street and Pleasant Street south of SR 32 in Noblesville is being rebuilt as an expressway with a series of roundabouts.
Call IndyStar reporter John Tuohy at 317-444-6418 or email him at john.tuohy@indystar.com. Follow him on Facebook and X/Twitter.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Noblesville street project hits delays after crews find 100-year-old tanks
