Johnson County is appropriating $27 million for a project to widen Smith Valley Road.
The Johnson County Council approved a request from the highway department on Monday to re-appropriate $12 million from the general fund and $15 million from the Economic Development Income Tax to pay for the Smith Valley Road project. It is the re-appropriation of money that was set aside for the project in 2023, 2024 and 2025, said Luke Mastin, the county’s highway supervisor.
The approximately $55 million total project will span from the Interstate 69 interchange roundabout at Mullinix Road to east of Restin Road. The county project from Mullinix to Restin roads will be tied into the Indiana Department of Transportation’s intersection improvement project at Smith Valley Road to State Road 135.
The project includes widening Smith Valley Road from two lanes to four lanes, replacing the Honey Creek bridge and constructing six roundabouts to remove left turns. The roundabouts would be used to make left turn movements along the corridor and would be placed between three-tenths to every half-mile at intersections including Paddock, Morgantown, Runyon, Peterman and Restin roads, alongside Silverleaf Drive, officials said.
Pedestrians will also be able to use a new 5-foot concrete sidewalk on the south side and a 10-foot asphalt path along the north, according to an information sheet about the project. A proposed drainage system with an enclosed storm sewer under the curb and the replacement of existing culverts is also planned, with the goal of improving drainage, officials said.
The project team is the Johnson County Highway Department, alongside CrossRoad Engineers, United Consulting and HWC Engineering, according to a presentation from July 2025 about the project. The goal of the project is to improve mobility and safety, officials said.
To help with safety, there will be a center median that restricts left turns. There were 234 motor vehicle crashes on Smith Valley Road between 2019 and 2024, and 40 of them resulted in injuries, county data show.
Roundabouts are also viewed by the Federal Highway Administration as a way to reduce the severity and number of crashes, as compared to a signalized intersection. They have 75% fewer conflict points, help simplify a motorist’s decisions, require vehicles to travel at lower speeds and eliminate right-angle or T-bone collisions. They reduced fatalities and injuries by 82% and reduced total crashes by 44%, compared to traditional intersections, according to an information sheet.
The project is set to start construction in 2027 and finish around 2029 or 2030. On Monday, Mastin said they are in the right-of-way acquisition process, and they’re “neck deep in development.”
“It will be a long process, but we are moving forward,” Mastin said.
The highway department wanted to re-appropriate the cash savings on Monday at the recommendation of the county’s financial consultant, Mike Reuter. He mentioned that amounts were reflecting twice on his financial report, which made the general fund look out of balance, so he recommended not encumbering the funds and instead re-appropriating them at the beginning of each year.
Council member Ron Bates asked Mastin if the state kicks in any funding for the project. Mastin said no state funding has been allocated for the project, and the bulk of the funding comes from the bond that was adopted last year. The $40 million bond was for road projects, including widening Smith Valley Road.
When that bond money runs out, the last portions of the project will be paid through the general fund and EDIT, Mastin said.
Starting in 2023, the Johnson County Council began setting aside $4 million annually from the general fund for transportation projects, alongside using annual revenue from the county’s portion of the EDIT for transportation projects. The long-term goal for the revenues was to address county capital road projects, and the first priority was Smith Valley Road, Mastin said.
“So this is not new money being appropriated, it is the savings the county has accumulated so far and previously appropriated for this project,” he said.
Beginning in 2026, Mastin said the $4 million per year in the general fund switches from accumulating as savings for the Smith Valley Road project to primarily paying the debt service for the road and bridge project bond that was issued last fall. Roughly $3.3 million of this amount covers the debt service payment and the remainder would be added to the $12 million in general fund savings from 2023-2025 for the project, he said.
Additionally, the county was awarded $7.5 million by the Indianapolis Metropolitan Planning Organization for the eastern portion of the project.
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