North Judson Town Council Approves Updated SR 10/Talmer Ave Sidewalk Project

North Judson Town Council members reconsidered a sidewalk project that’s expected to help improve safety for pedestrians when members met last Monday.

During their first meeting of the month, council members heard from Fleis and Vandenbrink Senior Project Manager Mitch Hansel about a sidewalk project on SR 10, which is referred to as Talmer Avenue within the Town limits.

He proposed replacing two blocks of sidewalk and adding new sidewalk from Wilson Street up to the Dollar General Store.

Hansel highlighted the fact that INDOT offers an 80/20 grant for this type of project that opens up November 4th and closes December 13th. The initial proposal has a total project cost of $528,800 and would require a $105,800 local match.

The red line represents the portion of the project that Council members asked Hansel to eliminate. The blue line shows where the new sidewalk would be installed.

At the request of the council, Hansel said they removed the portion that included replacing the existing sidewalk and that brought down the cost significantly.

He explained, “We reduced the project length by about 25 percent but reduced the project cost by about 40 percent. The total overall project is going to be $300,600 and the town’s portion would be $60,100 for the match.”

Clerk-Treasurer Andrew Rowe mentioned that the Town’s multi-phase ADA Transition Project is now fully funded through INDOT so there is $40,000 that was previously budgeted for that purpose that can now be spent elsewhere.

The council members voted unanimously to allow Hansel to apply for the grant funding for this project. He stated that this sidewalk project would likely occur in 2024 but noted that they have been able to push projects up so there is a possibility it could be done earlier than that.