Highway 142 overpass at McCanna Parkway will be removed
By Ed Nadolski
Editor in Chief
Work on the Highway 142 roundabout intersection with McCanna Parkway near Burlington High School will begin Monday, May 15, according to the state Department of Transportation.
Drivers who use that stretch of highway can anticipate a major disruption until the project, which will create a second entrance to the Burlington High School campus, is complete next fall.
Because a major portion of the project involves leveling the overpass that spans the White River Trail – a former railroad corridor – and installing the roundabout, Highway 142 will be closed to through traffic for much of the project. Traffic will be detoured along and Durand Avenue/State Street to the Burlington bypass, according to the DOT. Highway 83 and the bypass is also a viable alternative route.
In addition to installing the roundabout, the project includes resurfacing a four-mile stretch of Highway 142 (Bushnell Road) from Edgewood Street on the west to Highway J on the east. The interchange with the Highway 11/36/83 bypass is excluded from the resurfacing project.
The resurfacing will include improvements to the intersections at Brever Road, Wheatland Road, Womack Lane, Shagbark Lane, Horseshoe Trail and Highway J, according to the DOT.
After consulting with officials from the town, city, county, school district and Gateway Technical College, the DOT settled on the roundabout with at-grade bicycle and pedestrian crossings.
Officials at the time expressed concern about the box culvert tunnel included in two of the designs considered, saying it would likely become a target for graffiti and a place for teens to loiter.
According to state officials, the design of the Highway 142/McCanna Parkway intersection is complicated by its proximity to the schools, Bushnell Park and the White River Trail, and a desire to maintain safe interaction with pedestrian and bicycle traffic.
Officials with the DOT originally anticipated the start of the work in late April, but a late preconstruction meeting and pending contract approvals pushed it further into May.
The contractor, Payne and Dolan, Inc., plans on completing the $4 million project by this fall, according to the DOT, however, the schedule is weather dependent and subject to change.
Former Town of Burlington Chairman Kurt Petrie championed the removal of the overpass as part of a campaign pledge in 2007, but the proposal languished over concerns about the cost of the overpass removal and the jurisdictional transfer for that stretch of highway.
In 2009, City of Burlington officials agreed to assume responsibility for patrol and maintenance of the intersection if the state agreed to remove the overpass and create the junction.
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