Preparations for the Hickory Road Bridge replacement project continue to move ahead. Laurie Johnson with engineering firm DLZ told the Marshall County Commissioners Monday the paperwork on the final right-of-way parcel was expected by the end of this week.
Meanwhile, a wetland mitigation area also appears to have been secured from the City of Plymouth. “The city’s receptive, and we received a written confirmation that they are agreeable in principle and we can begin surveying,” she said. “So we’re going to start these tasks and other tasks that are needed in order to get their mitigation plans. We’ll continue on the acquisition required. There’s a couple different methods that the county can acquire the property from the city.”
However, she said additional funding to prepare the site for wetland mitigation has been denied by INDOT. “They said that their fiscal year 2018 money has been spent and obligated,” Johnson explained. She suggested following up with INDOT to make a second request.
At the same time, she says the permitting process with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources has hit some delays. “The IDNR did deny our permit for the bridge project because they want the mitigation site and the bridge project rolled into one,” she said. “That will actually happen, obviously, once the the mitigation plans are at the right spot for that application.”
Johnson also addressed concerns about how the mitigation site would affect future phases of the Greenway Trail, saying the proposed trail would fall outside the mitigation area.
