SAFETY FIRST: Boone County Sheriff’s Office deputies will be escorting convoys of Western Boone Community School Corp. buses through the intersection of U.S. 52 and Indiana 47 twice a day until a state-mandated detour of Interstate 65 traffic is lifted. Staff photo by Brenda L. Holmes
Convoys of Western Boone Community School Corp. buses will be escorted through the intersection of U.S. 52 and Indiana 47 twice a day until a state-mandated detour of Interstate 65 traffic is lifted.
The escort will be done by Boone County Sheriff’s Office deputies, Western Boone Superintendent Dr. Judi Hendrix told the school board Monday.
Thousands of vehicles a day are being routed onto U.S. 52 as the Indiana Department of Transportation seeks a way to repair the northbound I-65 bridge over Wildcat Creek. Inspectors discovered a support pier had sunk 9 inches into the river bed. The detour begins in Lebanon and covers more than 50 miles before traffic is returned to I-65 at the Indiana 18 exit. INDOT officials said Monday afternoon that the Wildcat Creek bridge will be closed for the “foreseeable future.”
A half-dozen Western Boone buses will be in the convoy, said Cecil Gosser, the district’s transportation director.
Buses will stage between 7:15 and 7:20 a.m. at Lamb Farms and be escorted to the intersection, Gosser said. In the afternoon, buses will stage at Thorntown Elementary School and be escorted to the intersection about 3:15 p.m.
No school buses will stop on U.S. 52 until the detour has been lifted, Gosser told the board. An alert was sent to parents telling them of the changes and to expect that buses will arrive 10 minutes early on each route, he said.
“Say a prayer for safety as we work through that issue,” Hendrix said.
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