After five delays and three months of waiting, construction workers returned to a busy intersection on State Road 135 to repave the road.
Workers returned Monday to repave the intersection at Smokey Row Road, including two ground-down sections of pavement that have been mostly untouched since March. Motorists on State Road 135 and Smokey Row Road have to endure just one more week of construction before the road is smooth again.
Construction workers will do four days of work total, Indiana Department of Transportation spokesman Harry Maginity said.
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This week, they will spend two days pouring pavement and spraying a sealant on the surface. Then crews have to wait four or five days for materials to dry and set before finishing the road, Maginity said.
Next week, the lane lines will be painted, and the approaches from the road to the driveways of about a dozen properties should be finished, Maginity said.
While construction crews are working, State Road 135 will either be restricted to one lane each way or have workers directing traffic with flags or signs.
Rain could delay the project again, but officials estimate the road will be open and smooth within the next week or two, Maginity said.
Construction crews originally started the two-day repavement project in late March in order to address bumps in the road.
But after one day of grinding down portions of the pavement, rainy weather delayed the project. Then the state wanted to double-check the quality of the asphalt to be poured, which delayed the project by another month. The asphalt was cleared to be poured about three weeks ago, Maginity said.
Since work stopped, two patches of pavement caused a divot in the road where drivers often would brake sharply, causing backups. Larger vehicles such as trucks could drive over the patches without issues, but small cars were susceptible to hitting the bottom of the vehicle on the pavement when it dipped by 2 inches. Construction workers filled the dips with light asphalt to cushion cars while driving over the unpaved portions, but motorists still complained about the road.
