Photo: Hammad Ali (Flickr)
Road work will shut down SR44 on Johnson/Shelby line.
State Route 44 is closing at the Johnson/Shelby County line for the next three weeks. INDOT’s spokesperson Harry Maginity says this area of the road needs to be fixed because it is narrow.
“We’re grinding off the outside,” Maginity says, “three feet of each side of the road and rebuilding it the full depth so that we’ve widened the road to two twelve foot lanes and there will be six foot paved shoulders on either side.”
Maginity says safety and mobility were the two main concerns in deciding to alter this section of the road. Wider roads are needed to allow drivers to get off the road in case of an accident. Maginity says lack of money kept INDOT from rebuilding the roads sooner.
“We were ready to go with the road,” he says, “we just didn’t have the money… This is a stimulus contract so it was available money that has allowed us to do this at this time.”
This section of the road is expected to re-open by the end of November.
