Today, the Allen County Board of Commissioners announced that the third round of an aggressive project to convert Allen County’s gravel roads to chip-and-seal hard surfaces has been completed.
News release from the Allen County Board of Commissioners:
Third Round of County Gravel Road Conversions Completed
Allen County, Indiana (October 14, 2021) — The Allen County Board of Commissioners today announced that the third round of an aggressive project to convert Allen County’s gravel roads to chip-and-seal hard surfaces has been completed.
The 27 miles of gravel highways converted this summer, primarily in the southern half of the county, were chosen based on factors such as continuity to other paved roads, the width of the stone pavement as part of the road, and a minimum of two houses per mile on the road. The total cost of this round was around $2 million and the money came from the county’s Local Income Tax (LIT) funds. All of the work was completed in-house with personnel from the Allen County Highway Department.
The highway department began the conversion process in 2019. So far, nearly 84 miles of gravel roads have been chipped-and-sealed with another 90 miles scheduled to be converted by 2025, depending on the availability of funds. A schedule of conversion projects can be found online at allencounty.us/project-schedules.
“Quality roads are one of the real foundations for quality of life,” the commissioners said. “These conversion projects are important for economic development, as you can well imagine. There is also a public safety issue to consider because gravel roads aren’t the safest roads to travel on. They are also more expensive for us to maintain.”