With just a week into the construction of the State Road 56 bridge over Highland Creek and CSX railroad track, motorists have not made the traffic delays easy to tolerate.
INDOT officials are reminding motorists to keep an eye on the newly installed traffic lights.
“We’re having some difficulty with the traffic signals. At the west end, where State Road 60 comes in…when they take a left turn, they’re either taking the turn into the yellow or red because they’re heading into oncoming traffic from the traffic moving westbound,” said INDOT spokesperson Harry Maginity. “Our timing of the signal is OK. But we’ve pushed the timing out a bit. If we push it out too long, then at night you’ll have a prolonged wait for traffic to move. It’s not a good situation, regardless of the situation. Maybe law enforcement will have a good idea on how to handle it.”
The Indiana Department of Transportation has restricted traffic to the single 11-foot lane at the State Road 56 bridge. Motorists will be routed to the north side of the bridge where temporary traffic signals allow traffic to cross the span one direction at a time.
This alternating traffic pattern should continue for approximately 45 days while rehabilitation work is being done on the south half of the steel beam structure.
E & B Paving, the state’s prime contractor for this $774,725 Seymour District bridge project on S.R. 56, is charged with patching pavement and replacing expansion joints before installing a 3/8-inch polymeric overlay on the bridge deck. Work includes new pavement approaches and mud wall construction.
INDOT officials note that traffic signal cycles must be slowed to accommodate eastbound S.R. 60 traffic as well as S.R. 56 traffic at the west end of the bridge.
Traffic count is 10,430 vehicles per day.
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