The Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) will host a public hearing on Wednesday, April 5, to give the public an opportunity to comment on current preliminary design plans to convert the intersection of SR 56 at Boatman Road to a roundabout. The intersection is located approximately 1.25 miles west of Scottsburg.
The public hearing will be held at the Mid America Science Park located at 821 S. Lake Road South in Scottsburg, at 6 p.m in the banquet hall.
The purpose of the project is to reduce traffic accidents at this intersection by reducing traffic speeds and removing the conditions that create right angle collisions, according to INDOT officials
The total cost estimated of the project is $2,841,000. Construction is anticipated to begin September of 2025. The traffic along SR 56 will be maintained during construction, as will access to all properties. Temporary pavement will be used to maintain traffic during phases in which construction will remove the existing travel lanes.
As proposed the project involves the construction of a roundabout with the circulating roadway centered to the southeast of the existing intersection. The approaches will be constructed to introduce curves to gently decelerate traffic from the posted speed limit to the circulating roadway speed which decrease accident severity inside the roundabout.
The proposed typical section of both SR 56 and Boatman Road will include two 12-foot wide travel lanes (one in each direction) with 4-foot wide paved shoulders and a 2-ft compacted aggregate shoulder which will transition to two 12 ft to 16 ft curbed lanes with a splitter island to divide traffic with a raised median and angle traffic to reduce the angle of potential impact reducing potential accident severity, according to INDOT officials.
The approach of Mount Drive at SR 56 along the east leg of the roundabout will be closed due to it’s dangerous angle of intersection. A landscaped earthen berm will be constructed across Mount Drive to prevent continued access to and from SR 56 at this location and will be constructed to eliminate dangerous merging and diverging conditions at this location with crossing traffic. In addition, a truck turnaround will be constructed on the south side of Mount Drive to maintain accessibility for cars and school buses using this roadway as a destination point.
The project will require the acquisition of approximately 6.628 acres of perpetual highway easement for INDOT access to conduct highway related work to include widening SR 56, grading, seeding, and drainage structure modifications.
A legal notice about the specifics of the project can be found in this week’s Crothersville Times.