As the rush hour approached Tuesday, traffic continued building during the first day of lane closure related to a project that will repave a portion of Herbertsville Road.
The eastbound lane of Herbertsville Road was closed from Thiele Road to Maple Avenue. The westbound lane remained open and was moving freely until the Thiele Road intersection, where just one lane was open, forcing all through traffic to wait for individual vehicles to turn left onto Lanes Mill Road. From there, Lanes Mill was becoming progressively more congested as the road traveled southbound, ultimately leading to bumper-to-bumper traffic from the area in and around Brick Memorial High School to the Burnt Tavern Road intersection.
Messaging signs as well as fixed-post signage along Herbertsville have announced for the last four days that a portion of the busy thoroughfare will be closed for several days for a milling and paving project. The project is expected to take several days to complete.
A half-mile section of the road was opened in Jan. 2020 to expose a trench during a project in which the county replaced more than 2,200 feet of drainage pipe. Since then, motorists have complained that the thoroughfare has significantly deteriorated, leading to pot holes and uneven surfaces that have rattled vehicles. Following a recent inspection, County Engineer John Ernst ordered Herbertsville Road to be added to a project that already saw the repaving of nearby Sally Ike Road.
While this limited project to repair the portion of the road affected by the 2020 construction project will occur immediately – before the winter season takes its annual toll on roadways – a much larger project is in the works for 2022.