Hearing to be held on Bass Rd. project

The Allen County Highway Department will hold a public hearing on Tuesday, June 12 on proposed changes to Bass Road. The project would include widening the road and adding a turn lane.

An open house is scheduled for 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. at the Pointe Church on Bass Road with a formal presentation after that.

Engineering and design are underway for the first phase, but construction isn't expected to begin until 2014.

By the time it's done, the road will be widened to three lanes - one eastbound lane, one westbound lane, and a continuous center two-way turn lane. The work will include improved sight distances, road shoulder and drainage improvements, bridge improvements, and a 10-foot wide multi-use trail to be constructed on one side of the road only. East of Hadley, the trail will run along the north side of Bass. It will cross Bass immediately east of the Hadley intersection, then continue west along the south side of the road.

The first phase will be reconstruction of the Bass Road-Hadley Road intersection. It will add turn lanes, traffic signal, drainage, and sidewalk improvements. All work is within about 800 feet of the intersection.

Phase two is scheduled for approximately one year later and will make similar improvements at the Kroemer Road intersection. Work on this phase will be within 1,200 feet of the intersection.

Because the remaining 4.3 miles of road widening and trail improvements are expected to be more expensive, construction on those will need to be done in sections over several years based on the availability of federal funding. The first will start at the east (Hillegas) end in approximately 2016. The section from Hadley to Scott will be the last phase, planned for 2018 or later.

The estimated cost of the entire project is $38.5 million. Federal funding will cover approximately 80 percent of the project's cost.