Dubois County Highway Department wants to repair busy county road intersection

The County Commissioners are moving forward with planned improvements to the 630 South and 500 West intersection west of Huntingburg.

The intersection was the site of a vehicle crash earlier this year that took the life of a Keith Pieper and badly injured his friend. High speed was determined to be the cause of the accident not the intersection, but the road has been a sore point for residents for some time.

With school back in session 500 West will become a busy road used by high school students traveling to and from Southridge High School. The road’s hills and straight path running from State Road 64 to a 90 degree curve before intersecting with Old State Road 64 invite speeds in excess of the posted 45 mph.

In a recent letter to The Herald, Norma Lammers, a property owner on three of the corners of that intersection, stated the county needed to do something to deter speeding.

According to County Engineer Jason Heile, motorists and bus drivers have complained about the intersection’s bad line of sight due to it sitting in the valley between the two hills in the past. “I think we will be lowering and smoothing out a hill north of the intersection and two hills south of the intersection and raising the low point at the intersection,” Heile explained, “to create a better line of site in either direction.”

According to the County Highway Superintendent Steve Berg the county attempted to level the intersection a few years ago but the property owners would not allow the county the 60 feet of right-of-way needed to complete the project. Heile told the commissioners the property owners have stated they will now allow the right-of-way.

The project is being considered for spring of 2013 but Heile was instructed to get the signatures for the right-of-way from the property owners before proceeding with plans for the intersection.