Road closures in West Lafayette include shutdown through October
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. − Multiple updates from the West Lafayette Parks and Recreation department were on this week's Board of Public Works and Safety agenda.
Parks and Recreation projects and updates
Agreements for 2023 Public Right-of-Way Landscape Maintenance were approved by the board. The agreements are for a variety of landscape work throughout West Lafayette, including across Sagamore Parkway, River Road/Tapawingo/State Street, Cumberland West and Cumberland East.
The extent of the work is listed on each of the designated areas' specifications worksheets. Maintenance includes spraying glyphosate along curbs and beds, cutting landscape beds, mulching and more.
An agreement between the Parks and Recreation Department and J. Christopher Landscaping LLC was approved for an amount not-to-exceed $36,585 for the annual tree planting program, Operation Re-Leaf.
According to the program's website, "Every year, West Lafayette Tree Friends partners with the City to plant street trees in the public right-of-way, through a program called Operation Re-leaf. Your donations to West Lafayette Tree Friends match the City dollar-to-dollar, providing free street trees for residents in West Lafayette."
Branding updates to the trail system for a maximum of $36,500 were approved by the board. These updates will include guideline developments for classifying and categorizing trail components, GIS (geographic information system) services and trail identification branding.
"We're going to have just simple icons that people can identify with (for) trail markers," Bryce Patz, community forestry and greenspace planner, said. "...We'll get the GIS (linked to) a web app, so people will have access to it."
Patz said the web app will be able to scan bar codes along trails to mark recognizable locations. He stated that the timeline on this app will be about 10-12 weeks in development.
Work on the Happy Hollow Master Plan is underway, according to Patz. In 2022, a Five Year Master Plan was adopted, and within that plan, according to Patz were instructions to draw up a 10-15 year plan for Happy Hollow Park.
"The number one community feedback was people wanted to see (Happy Hollow) improved...but we have a lot of challenges with it," Patz said. "Because we have our Five Year Master Plan that identified ways to improve Happy Hollow, (we had) community surveys that identified Happy Hollow new improvements that people want to see.
"We have our erosion mitigation plan that is going to be an internal maintenance document...Because we have all these different components, (we) want to have an overall master plan that dials in beyond our Five Year Master Plan."
Closures
The entrance and exit ramps from Soldiers Home Road onto Sagamore Parkway westbound were approved to be closed from March 16 through March 18 for storm sewer installation. According to the memo for these closures, only the westbound ramps will be affected, the eastbound ramps will not be.
Cherry Lane between McCormick Road and Northwestern Avenue will be closed from March 6 through Aug. 1.
"This closure marks the start of the Cherry Lane Realignment project as well as Purdue’s construction of the Pete Dye Clubhouse," the memo says. "Access to Edgemont Street from Cherry Lane will be available for westbound traffic until May 31st. After May 31st, access to the Northwestern Heights neighborhood will be limited to Northwestern Avenue entrances. Police and fire have been notified; proper vehicle and pedestrian signage will be in place during this time frame."
Nimitz and Arnold roads will be closed at its intersection west of Martin Jischke Drive as of Tuesday through Oct. 2. This closure will allow for the installation of water main and storm sewer improvements "as part of the ongoing Purdue Discovery Park District Construction," according to the board document.
The last closure approved Tuesday was that of Yeager Road, northbound from Kent Avenue to Cumberland Avenue. This closure will be in place from March 6 through March 31.
"After March 31st, the northbound lane will be closed from Sagamore Parkway to Cumberland Avenue," Chris Gmyrek, engineering technician for West Lafayette, said.
Gmyrek said that once March 31 has passed, an end-date for the northbound lane closure from Sagamore Parkway to Cumberland Avenue will be announced.
Margaret Christopherson is a reporter for the Journal & Courier. Email her at mchristopherson@jconline.com and follow her on Twitter @MargaretJC2.
This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: Road closures in West Lafayette include shutdown through October
