The $9.2 million construction project to widen Worthsville Road and give the City of Greenwood a major east-west corridor is set to start next week after long delays, officials said Tuesday.
The planned roadwork comes about four years after the city completed the first phase of reconstruction to widen Worthsville Road from Interstate 65 to U.S. 31. The next phase, Section 3, will stretch almost a mile west from U.S. 31 to Averitt Road.
Construction crews will widen Worthsville Road and add a roundabout at the Averitt Road intersection over the course of two construction seasons with a goal of completing it by the end of 2021, said Daniel Johnston, city engineer.
Work on the road will officially begin next week, with crews setting up erosion control items and construction warning signs. This is months later than expected as construction was supposed to start in the spring, but the area was not ready for the contractor to safely begin work, Johnston said. The delay is due to how long it took utility companies to relocate pipes, lines and cables along the short stretch of road, he said.
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Construction will continue through the fall, and pick back up next spring, summer and fall. The Indiana Department of Transportation, which is funding most of the project, will decide if the recent delay will affect the timeline, but no completion dates have changed yet, Johnston said.
The city spent about two years preparing for this section of the project, which forced several families out of their homes. The city purchased and demolished or relocated 27 mobile homes along this stretch of Worthsville Road to make room for the project, costing Greenwood about $466,000.
The city also bought about 3.5 acres of land from Greenwood Christian Church, which owns 66 acres on the northeast side of Worthsville and Averitt roads, for $126,870.
Overall, Greenwood will spend nearly $2 million to improve this less-than-1-mile stretch of road on the southwest side of the city.
In December, the city chose Indianapolis-based Rieth-Riley Construction Co. for the project, selecting its $9.2 million bid. The Greenwood Redevelopment Commission approved funding for the project in July 2019. The city is responsible for 20% of the cost, or about $1.8 million, with the state paying the other 80%.
The goal of the overall project to reconstruct Worthsville Road, which has long been in the works, is to improve traffic flow through the city. It consists of four phases, numbered numerically in order from the westernmost to easternmost part of Worthsville Road, between State Road 37—soon to be Interstate 69—and the Shelby County line. Improvements to the entire road through the county is expected to cost taxpayers upwards of $20 million.
Construction to widen Worthsville Road from I-65 to U.S. 31 was completed in 2016, and marked the beginning of the project to prepare for increased east-west traffic. As part of that phase, crews added a four-lane roadway and eliminated stops with a new roundabout between the two highways.
Section 2, from Averitt Road to Honey Creek Road, is up next. Bidding for that contract opens in November, and the estimated total cost is about $10 million, Johnston said.
