Breaking ground won’t take place until 2016, but the Indiana Department of Transportation continues to work toward developing a new sub-district facility in Plymouth.
The current space is being used as a field office for various projects. That sub-district site, however, does not provide direct access to Highway 30.
The proposed Plymouth sub-district building hopes to ensure front office staff and mechanics are more evenly distributed across the state – especially during the winter months.
INDOT Public Information Officer Will Wingfield says the sub-district facilities serve multiple purposes.
“Our sub-district facilities are unique in that they have mechanic garages. We can’t keep trucks running 24/7 unless we have mechanics to service those when they go down,” says Wingfield.
Housing and dispatching of maintenance crews and salt storage are also among the proposed uses for the site.
Wingfield says the project is still in its early stages, but estimates the cost between $8-million and $9-million.
“That would give us one of our newer, modern facilities that give us, you know adequate room in our shops, help make sure and keep all of our materials such as salt contained and be able to recycle some of the material that we can’t at our older facilities,” says Wingfield.
A primary plat for the new INDOT facility has been submitted to the Plymouth Plan Commission which considered the matter during its December 2nd meeting.
INDOT intends to continue working to fully purchase the land necessary for the Plymouth sub-district facility in the coming months. Once that has been completed, the agency will go through the state budget process to help bid the project and complete the design.