Timeline revealed for Lilly site

Maria Flora, The Lebanon Reporter, Ind.
·4 min read

Apr. 4—Officials on Monday revealed a timeline for major road construction in the area surrounding Eli Lilly's complex to be built on Lebanon's north side.

Kurt Lengacher, an Eli Lilly senior consultant engineer and planner of global facilities, presented a site overview to Boone County Commissioners and concerned citizens, and answered questions from both.

He outlined steps Lilly may take to reduce the impact of construction traffic on the surrounding area, including staggering start times and encouraging carpooling among workers.

He apologized for workers taking down nearly all the trees on the site this spring but explained that state law protecting bat habitat dictated the schedule. Any trees not removed by late March would be off limits until October, when bats leave them. The company did leave trees in one area that does not need to be graded.

Site work, including earth moving and grading, begins this month. Groundbreaking is scheduled for April 17 and completion in early 2027. Peak construction traffic is expected when about 2,900 workers per day will be at the site in late 2024 and early 2025, Lengacher said.

Roads

Also this month, contractors will bring water to the site and, at times, will temporarily close portions of County Road 300 North and Witt Road to do so. The work will take about two weeks.

The City of Lebanon annexed the Lilly land last year at the request of the Indiana Economic Development Corporation. Roads leading to the site are owned by the city in some places and the county in others. Both governments are working with the IEDC to ensure the roads meet standards and are built at the state's expense.

Lengacher estimates that Lilly will close the portion of Witt Road that runs through the complex site April 14. But Witt Road, also known as C.R. 150 W., will still be open to the public north and south of Lilly, and the state will rebuild both.

The Lilly site boundaries are roughly C.R. 450 N. and C.R. 375 N., CSX to the east and Interstate 65 to the west. C.R. 450 N. dead ends at the interstate. C.R. 375 N. dead ends at Witt Road. A small portion of the site is also adjacent to C.R. 300 S. and Witt Road to 375 S.

Timeline

Concurrent work on Witt Road from C.R. 450 N. to Ind. 47, and on C.R. 375 N. from Witt Road to Ind. 39 will begin in late June or early July. Both will be widened and get thick pavement to accommodate and survive heavy equipment and construction materials.

C.R. 375 N. will be widened at the intersection with Ind. 39 to allow turn lanes meant to prevent construction traffic backup.

Lilly's construction traffic will enter the site primarily from Witt Road on the north side and C.R. 300 N. on the south side during the summer road construction and switch to C.R. 375 N. when it's complete as early as late this year or early in 2024.

Jack Fahrenbach, who lives on N. Witt Road, asked if emergency medical, fire and police services will be able to reach his rural home during construction. Other neighbors echoed his question and added trash service to the list. Michael Watts with Pure Development, Inc., of Indianapolis, said mail delivery, trash pickup, and emergency services should continue without interruption.

C.R. 450 N. will also be improved, and Commissioner Don Lawson asked that Lilly make the road wider by using the property it owns along the south side of that road to improve it instead of seeking right-of-way from landowners on the north side.

Next roads

The state will then build a new north/south paved road, nicknamed the Witt Road Bypass at present, just east of the Lilly site. The new road is to allow farm equipment and local traffic a way north or south without using Ind. 39.

And Witt Road from C.R. 375 N. to 300 N. will be widened and improved. It may also get a roundabout at about the C.R. 325 N. mark if the Indiana Department of Transportation chooses that axis from five choices for a new Interstate 65 interchange north of the city. The interstate traffic cannot head straight east from the C.R. 325 mark but would feed north or south onto Witt Road and then along C.R. 375 N. or 300 N. to Ind. 39.

An INDOT representative at Monday's meeting said the state will announce the exact location next week. The bridge over the interstate on C.R. 300 N. will remain open during and after the new interchange project, according to INDOT plans.

Lilly is the anchor tenant in the LEAP Lebanon District, which is the largest economic development project in state history. Lilly's $2.1 billion pharmaceutical complex is the second largest economic investment in Hoosier history. LEAP stands for limitless exploration advanced pace. The district, known informally as a hard-tech corridor, is being set aside by the Indiana Economic Development Corporation for groundbreaking industry.