INDOT removes worn asphalt pavement
Broadway pavement repairs – the end is near
Contributed By:The 411 News
INDOT's road diet plan for Broadway doesn’t appeal to Mayor Freeman-Wilson
In northwest Indiana transportation is king and its name is the Indiana Dept. of Transportation.
While INDOT is in the midst of major construction work on I-80/94 with repairs that will last into 2019, the agency has also been doing repair work on Broadway, from Gary to Merrillville.
Since July, commuters have navigated one-lane travel each way on Gary’s busiest thoroughfare.
That work was scheduled to be finished by November 24, but that completion date is now in doubt.
The work on Broadway specified asphalt resurfacing from 4th Avenue in Gary to U.S. 30 in Merrillville. Resurfacing in Merrillville is nearly complete. Broadway resurfacing in Gary hit a snag last week when Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson vetoed INDOT’s plans to reconfigure the travel and parking lanes along Broadway.
“I had never heard of a road diet,” Mayor Freeman-Wilson said about INDOT’s plan that would eliminate parking along Broadway. “Broadway would look like Grant Street and Ridge Road.” Those streets have a center lane for turning vehicles and prohibit parking.
A road diet is a lane reconfiguration design that transportation planners say can reduce traffic bottlenecks and increase traffic safety.
Broadway resurfacing in Gary will stop at 25th Avenue for 2017 and resume in 2018 for completion.
INDOT completed the removal of the railroad trestle near 9th and Broadway. Mayor Freeman-Wilson said the pavement upgrade will alleviate the flooding that often occurred under the rail bridge during heavy rains.
Most intersections along Broadway in Gary have curb ramps. The repair work includes the installation of detectable warning surfaces on those ramps – a surface plate of truncated domes detectable by cane or underfoot that alert pedestrians with vision impairments of their approach to street crossings and hazardous drop-offs.
Crosswalk and lighting improvements were made along the Broadway corridor near Indiana University.
Gary Public Transit will have to delay the start of its Broadway Express bus service that was scheduled to launch in November. INDOT has yet to install bus shelters along Broadway between 6th Avenue and 86th Avenue in Merrillville.
The Ace Hardware store owner at 13th and Broadway, Mel Goldman, looks forward to the end of construction. “I’ve lost about 12% percent of my business and saw a business down the street close because of it.”
Story Posted:11/18/2017
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