On Monday County Highway Superintendent Jason Peters presented the commissioners with several permit requests for road cuts and or bores in the county’s right-of-way from NIPSCO, Century Link, Haskins Underground, and Frontier. All were approved.
Peters gave a brief update on several of the county’s bridge projects. He is still waiting on the appraisals to come back for the Elm Road Bridge and King Road has been completed. On Bridge 87, on 11th Road, the supporting information from the land purchases was forwarded to USI and will be forwarded to INDOT. Bridge #232 on Randolph Street, entering Centennial Park in Plymouth continues to work with the City and Park on lighting for the new bridge structure. While the county will pay for the bridge, the city will pay for the lighting.
Superintendent Peters also reported about 50 miles of chip-seal road work this season and 25 to 30 miles of triple chip-and-seal roads. He estimated 10-12 miles of paved roadways. He will present the 2023 Road Program at the December 19th meeting.
Commissioner Mike Burroughs asked about the latest PASER Rating and Peters said, “When we first started the road program, the County had an average score of 1, which was in 2015. We now have an average score of 5.5.” He continued, “When this all started with the PASER Ratings we had 85% failed roads. This is a significant improvement in a very short period!” Peters said this program will continue to improve the roads in our County. The Commissioners thanked Peters and his staff for their efforts.
