GRANGER — A 73-mile upgrade of the Indiana Toll Road is about one-third done, according to the operator of the state-owned highway.
Indiana Toll Road Concession Co., of Granger, recently started a new phase of its $200 million project to rebuild the Toll Road from milepost 20 in Lake Station to milepost 93 in Elkhart. The work got underway in April.
Earlier this month, repaving work started on two new sections: between mileposts 55 and 62 in LaPorte County and mileposts 73 and 83 in St. Joseph County, from the South Bend area to Mishawaka. In both sections, eastbound and westbound traffic are restricted to one lane.
The sections are expected to be finished by Labor Day, in time for University of Notre Dame football weekends, said Amber Kettring, public relations manager for ITRCC. “The schedule is on track,” she said, adding that some sections have been finished earlier than expected.
Along with the repaving of the highway, the project calls for the upgrade of 53 bridges, improvement of interchanges and the installation of a fiber-optic cable that will enable the use of new signs and safety-monitoring cameras. The overall project, led by Rieth-Riley Construction Co., of Goshen, is expected to be completed by December 2017.
The next phase of work will begin in spring and be done by Memorial Day, Kettring said. That phase calls for repaving another section near South Bend, along with a section from the Mishawaka area to Elkhart.