North Main Street in Milford is closed north of Chore Time for the CR 1300N extension project. Photo by David Slone, Times-Union

By David Slone
Times-Union

MILFORD — Construction of the CR 1300N extension is expected to be completed by June 2024, officials said Wednesday, July 19, at a public information meeting on the project.

Held in the Milford Community Building, the informal meeting was for two hours with a casual presentation in the first hour. A little over a dozen people attended, but people could stop by and ask questions as they wished from 3- 5 p.m.

Patrick Duncan, with Michael Baker International, the design company for the Local Tracks Kosciusko CR 1300 Extension, said with the road under construction, they wanted to have a meeting for local residents of Milford who are affected by the project to give the residents an opportunity to see what was planned.

He said the road currently stops at Old SR 15 and then goes slightly to the north, crossing over the existing Main Street. Main Street will be slightly relocated closer to the railroad tracks. A single bridge will be built, crossing over the Norfolk Southern railroad tracks and the relocated Main Street, and then CR 1300N will continue on to the west and connect up to SR 15.

Explaining the purpose and need of the project, he stated it’s “basically to give connectivity to the people of the Milford area.” It also will provide a connection to motorists “to be able to connect across, provide better access to emergency vehicles and reduce delays that are caused by the train tracks.”
Construction began in spring 2023.

“In general, they constructed some of the embankments leading up to the bridge on the west side and they’re beginning to bring the dirt to construction on the east side. Working with railroad to get access to start building the bridge, and that’s coming pretty soon. And then we’re looking to, basically, continue construction through this year and in through 2024 until June. So that’s when the project will finish up, barring any delays,” Duncan said.

The closings and detours of the roads are set up and will stay in place through the duration of the project. SR 15 will be reduced to one lane, similar to how it was during NIPSCO’s utility work, starting July 31 and lasting about 60 days, he said. CR 1300N will not be open at that point, it’ll just be some of the “connector pieces” set up so that eventually when it’s opened up it’ll be ready to go.

“Part of the work with the Local Tracks program is that they’re trying to reduce accidents at crossings by eliminating so many crossings and provide these grade separations to increase mobility and safety for the project,” Duncan said. “So, with that, we’ve got at-grade crossings East North Street, East South Street and East Fourth Street will be eventually closed. With the relocation of the CR 1300N over the tracks, they will have the ability to close some of these other crossings.”

Andy Brown, with contractor Phend & Brown, speaks about the CR 1300N extension project as Patrick Duncan, with Michael Baker International, the design company for the project, listens Wednesday. Photo by David Slone, Times-Union

Andy Brown, representing the contractor Phend & Brown, said their plan originally was to get the bridge built and most of the job pretty well completed this year, but instead of the bridge work starting it April, it won’t get started until the middle of August for “various reasons.” He said they’re going to try to get as much done this year as they can, but it’s definitely not going to be able to be completed until 2024, with the actual completion date at the end of June at this point. If there are more delays, he said construction completion might be pushed back a little further.

“To open up any of those roads over the winter, we would have to have them completely done, striped, shouldered, signs, everything to make them safe. We’re not promising that at this time,” Brown said. “There is a possibility we could open the existing CR 1300N pavement up, but the problem with that is, we have to tear a part of that road up to put the new road in. So if we get far enough along we put the new pavement in, 1300 won’t be able to be opened (on) the old alignment. So we just don’t know for sure how that’s going to go.”

The ramp on the west side is — for all practical purposes — completed, he said. They’re building the dirt ramp/embankment/approach on the east side and that will be about done when it’s time to go out on SR 15.

Brown said they will have 60 days of traffic restriction allowed, but hopefully it won’t take that long, weather dependent.

He said they did have some difficulties with locating and establishing the detours, but those should have been addressed.

Charlie Schueler, with engineering firm Lochmueller Group, reiterated that there’s going to be a lot of work on Ind. 15 and once all that work is completed, it will go back to what the configuration is now.

“So on the east side of the road — if you’re heading north —- on the east side there will be the lane to get over to turn right onto 1300; and if you’re heading south, there will be a left-turn lane to turn left onto 1300 as well as a passing lane to get around the vehicles that are turning left onto 1300,” Brown said.

A man asked if Old SR 15 won’t open up until the project is completed. Brown said that was correct because the Indiana Department of Transportation has oversight on the job and they won’t allow it until there’s surface asphalt and stripes on it, and if they do that then that prevents hauling across the road. When it’s all done, Old 15 will be an at-grade crossing with the new road with stop signs.

Doug Dagley, project manager and designer with Michael Baker International, said this construction is frustrating for everybody, but it will benefit the future and is a great opportunity.

“It’s one of the first ones really in the state that’s actually getting constructed right now, and, also, just getting it in this county. A lot of the money did end up north of us because of the railroads and the amount of railroads up there, whereas this is one of the more rural counties that actually got the money. So, it’s a great benefit, it really is,” Dagley said.

Brown said it will help out the town of Syracuse, too, because of the routes they take to Elkhart County and a lot of traffic comes out of Polywood. The CR 1300N extension will take the Polywood traffic straight out to SR 15 instead of it going through town.

When asked about his confidence in the completion date, Brown said a couple things happened with the railroad. After they were awarded the job, there was a significant change in how a flagger for the railroad on the project was hired. Norfolk Southern used to supply that person but decided they didn’t want to do it that way anymore and the railroad has total authority over everything. There was some back and forth between Norfolk and the state of Indiana, and they’re changing the hiring of the flagger for the entire state. Now, Brown said, the contractor has to hire a flagging company and there’s only one company that can do it and they’re in Texas.

There also was a “clerical error” at the railroad that delayed them approving the work to proceed on their property.

“It’s hard to believe, but it did happen,” Brown said.

Dagley said, “So if anybody doesn’t know, railroads were here first and they have the most authority of anybody and you would just not believe the authority that they have. It’s a way of getting commerce back and forth, and that’s the way it’s treated, so they have ample power.”

The contract for the project was about $7.723 million, but federal funds are paying for 80% of the costs with local funds covering 20%.