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By GEOFF FRANK
County officials gave insight Monday into their thinking regarding a proposed truck route/traffic bypass on the south side of Bluffton.
Creation of a new stretch of County Road 250S emerged as the tentative choice of all three members of the Wells County Board of Commissioners.
The new road, along with a new one-half mile extension to the south of County Road 100E, is intended to serve as an improved east-west connector route for traffic heading over to Ind. 1.
Already-heavy truck traffic on the west side of Bluffton is expected to increase with the construction of Indiana Bio-Energy’s planned ethanol plant at 1441 S. Adams St.
Adams Street is County Road 100E outside of the Bluffton city limits. The street currently dead-ends at County Road 200S.
IBE has been in planning for many months for its 100 million gallons-per-year dry-mill corn-processing ethanol plant.
The company received both its air-quality permit from the Indiana Department of Environmental Management and its county building permit last week, clearing the way for construction to begin in earnest.
Designation of the new stretch of County Road 250S as the preferred route for the east-west connector to Ind. 1 had been recommended as early as January 2006 by County Highway Engineer Larry Owen.
At the time, he had noted that a significant advantage of County Road 250S is that the work could be done without disrupting traffic.
Also, there are little or no utility concerns because it would be mostly new right-of-way.
Other options had included improvements to either County Roads 300S or 200S.
While county officials have expressed concerns that County Road 200S is too residential and too limited in available right-of-way, they indicated Monday that the road may have to carry some construction-related traffic in coming months.
Most of the construction-related traffic to the ethanol plant is expected to come from Ind. 124 and then south on Adams Street to the plant site.
Commissioner Scott Mossburg made the motion that the county explore the existing capacity of County Road 200S to handle increased traffic during the construction period and to figure estimated costs of the new road work to make County Road 250S as the east-west connector to Ind. 1.
Owen will coordinate preliminary tasks. Core samples will be taken of County Road 200S to gauge its capacity to handle increased traffic in the interim.
Additionally, Owen will contact owners of property along the County Road 250S route for help in identifying any obstacles that would affect projected costs.
He also plans to contact Norfolk & Southern Railroad to explore possibilities of an overpass over the rail line with the new road.
Commissioners Paul Bonham and Kevin Woodward joined Mossburg in a unanimous 3-0 vote for the motion.
They each verified after the meeting that County Road 250S would be their preferred route.
The City of Bluffton plans improvements to Adams Street but wants to wait until the heavy construction traffic is completed.
The fear is that if the road were improved now, the heavy equipment for the construction would tear up much of the improved road.
The commissioners also expressed concerns about potential damage to County Road 200S during the interim.
As Adams Street deteriorates during the construction, they fear more traffic will travel along County Road 200S.
The commissioners noted they are not pleased with the added demands that County Road 200S likely will need to carry during the construction phase.
They noted, however, that the road already is regularly traveled by trucks and would not represent a new use.
At the height of the continual concrete pour, cement trucks would be running continually 24 hours a day.
Which direction the cement trucks come from is expected largely to center on which company is selected by construction officials for that work, officials noted.
The roads-related discussion brought a number of key officials to the meeting Monday.
Those present included Owen; County Highway Supervisor Ed Herman; Area Plan Commission Director Michael Lautzenheiser Jr.; County Surveyor Jarrod Hahn; Bluffton officials Bill Ball, Doug Sundling and Jim Phillabaum; Edgar Seward of Indiana Bio-Energy; and Toby Steffen of Butler Fairman & Seufert.
Seward, general manager of Indiana Bio-Energy, said there is no way to predict with certainty how much of the plant’s traffic will come from the south.
With there being other, competing ethanol plants also under construction to the south, Seward assumes that a higher percentage of the corn supplies will come from the north.
Steffen said city representatives will meet with representatives of Indiana Bio-Energy and the Peyton’s Northern Distribution Center regarding the Adams Street improvements.
City officials hope the city project on Adams Street can stay within the existing right-of-way of the street.
The road would be reconstructed to current city standards, which Steffen said are similar to those of the Indiana Department of Transportation.
Owen asked if the city had its funding in place for the Adams Street improvements, but did not receive a full response.
Little, if any help, is expected from state officials for the cost of the road improvements.
Owen hopes there may be assistance from the state and Norfolk & Southern on the rail overpass.
Additionally, Owen hopes the state will help with improvements to the road intersection with Ind. 1.
Steffen said estimates of the new road construction range from $900,000 to $1.2 million per mile.
Estimates for the two-mile section of Adams Street from Ind. 124 to County Road 200S range from $2.4 million to $2.5 million for the “Volkswagon version” to $4 million for the “Cadillac version,” said Steffen.
Every pavement section is different, Steffen noted, so it is difficult to estimate costs until an analysis of the current road is made.
Steffen and Owen agreed that the lengthy time frame involved in making road improvements through the federal aid process through the state would take long past the expected operation date of fall 2008 for the new ethanol plant.
Officials estimate it would take from seven to 10 years for project completion through federal aid procedures.
gfrank@news-banner.com
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