Thirteen citizens turned out last night at the public hearing presentation by engineers for the $2.4 million dollar Klockner Road Project on Knox’s west side. Most of those in attendance were interested how the project was going to impact their property.
The engineers from Lawson-Fisher Associates of South Bend explained the process for acquisition of property that will total 3.7 acres.
The existing road is 18 feet and the intersections are only 20-25 feet in radius. The new roadway will have 12 foot lanes and will provide enough space so trucks do not need to pull into the other lane when making turns.
Mayor Rick Chambers, who was a police officer before becoming mayor, commented that the intersections have always been a problem in this area.
“The intersections are bad out there. We’ve had many number of trucks that have sideswiped cars and sideswiped poles and it’s been a problem my whole career. As Mr. Weaver stated, we’ve lost a couple of companies because they knew truck drivers couldn’t make those corners the way they are,” said Mayor Chambers.
New Knox City Council President Jeff Berg was excited about the project.
“I’m just kind of looking at the future of Knox,” said Jeff Berg. “I’m looking at 10-20 years down the road and how it’s going to be a positive impact for our community, even the people that live out there as well.”
Land acquisition activities will begin in the spring and summer for this project with the bid letting scheduled for December of 2012. The three phase project will begin in the spring of 2013 and will be completed in the fall of that same year.
James Hicks, of J.W. Hicks, stated that his company has 200-300 trucks a month using that roadway into his plant and said this will be a great benefit to the truck drivers.
