Clinton Street commuters should expect some severe delays over the next few years.
The city and state will each replace bridges on Clinton near downtown, but separate construction schedules will keep portions of the thoroughfare closed for some time.
The city will begin reconstructing the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Bridge over the St. Marys River next year.
The state has plans to replace a bridge just north of there over Spy Run Creek as soon as 2011, according to Toni Mayo, spokeswoman for the Indiana Department of Transportation.
Both projects will require some closures of lanes on Clinton Street.
Tonight, the state will conduct a public hearing on its project including the Spy Run bridge, estimated to cost $3.7 million. Mayo said the bridge needs to be replaced because it regularly collects debris from the river that becomes dangerous to the bridge. She said the bridge will be raised 7 feet to prevent flooding.
The project also includes softening the curves of Clinton south of State Boulevard to improve safety.
Mayo said the project will require a portion of Clinton to be closed for about a year.
While she acknowledged this would cause headaches for the 23,000 southbound motorists who use Clinton daily, it would take longer and would be too expensive to do the project any other way.
“It’s length of pain versus intensity of pain,” Mayo said.
The project will require the state to purchase Huth Tool & Machine Corp. and some rental property, but Mayo said those negotiations have yet to begin.
During the closure, Mayo said vehicles will be directed to take Coliseum Boulevard east to Washington Boulevard, although there are several other southern routes for drivers.
While the state is financing much of the bridge over the St. Marys, Fort Wayne is leading that construction project because it wants to make the span a showcase as vehicles enter downtown. Shan Gunawardena, city traffic engineer, said project work will begin next spring and last two construction seasons.
He said the city hopes to leave some travel lanes open for commuters during construction, but plans have not been finalized. At a minimum, the city will have to close travel lanes to make room for the project, estimated to cost $7.8 million.
The city and state did coordinate their projects to try to reduce inconveniences for drivers, and Gunawardena said there likely will be some overlap as the city project and state project could both be under construction in 2011.
