The bids are in for
the Gateway Blvd. reconfiguration.
At its meeting
Monday night, the Chesterton Redevelopment Commission voted unanimously to
take those bids under advisement.
The two bids:
$168,948.05, from Walsh & Kelly; and $230,800, from Rieth Riley
Construction.
The point of the
reconfiguration: to remove the bottleneck--formed by the median
islands--which pinches the four westbound lanes at the roadway’s mouth on
Ind. 49 to two lanes just east of the Speedway, resulting in long stacks of
traffic at rush hour.
The key features of
the design:
* The traffic
islands will be lopped roughly in half to create four full westbound lanes
west of Matson Street.
* Motorists
eastbound on Gateway Blvd. from Ind. 49 will no longer be able to enter the
Speedway by turning left and crossing westbound Gateway Blvd. through the
current cross-through between the two islands. Instead, they’ll be directed
to Speedway’s road cut on Matson Street.
* Speedway’s road
cut on westbound Gateway Blvd. will become right-in/right-out only.
* The Bob Evans and
Hilton Garden Inn road cut on eastbound Gateway Blvd. will also become
right-in/right-out only. Customers leaving both businesses will be directed
to the intersection of Matson Street, where they’ll be able to turn left
onto westbound Gateway Blvd.
* Motorists
westbound on Gateway Blvd. will have a left turn-only lane allowing them to
access Bob Evans and the Hilton Garden Inn.
The Brick Pavers at
Coffee Creek Center
In other business,
Street Commissioner John Schnadenberg reported that all of the brick pavers
at Coffee Creek Center have been removed, two sub coats of asphalt applied,
and some curbing installed.
Pretty much all
that remains, Schnadenberg said, is for the Lake Erie Land Company’s
contractor to put down the final surface coat, from one end of the
development to the other.
“They should
probably start that this week,” he noted.
Once the job is
complete, the town will accept the roads as public rights-of-way into its
street inventory, and then regular maintenance will become the town’s
responsibility.