Update, Oct. 25: Avon officials said Comcast completed its work removing utility lines and the Indiana Department of Transportation will be able to continue road work on U.S. 36.
AVON — The town manager in Avon says a construction project scheduled to be completed this winter may not be finished until early Summer 2022.
U.S. 36 is being widened and a lane is being added from Raceway Road to Ronald Reagan Parkway.
Town leaders say the project was designed to improve traffic flow and was supposed to be done around December 1.
Town Manager Ryan Cannon says Comcast hasn't completed its relocation of utility lines, which has prevented INDOT from getting the project done on time. Now, INDOT says the project completion will be delayed by about six months.
"We had been unable to get answers from Comcast about when they were going to relocate and that's kind of why we put information out because we wanted to inform our community that the project was going to be delayed and there was going to be some additional inconvenience as a result of that," Cannon said.
In a Wednesday Facebook post, the town said the Indiana Department of Transportation and the Town of Avon had called and emailed Comcast for several weeks about the lines. The post says Comcast has known about the requirement for months and chose not to respond or complete the move.
"We felt like we weren't getting a response and we weren't getting an answer and INDOT was trying and we attempted to make a contact as well and we weren't getting a response, so we felt like we owed it to our residents to explain to them what the real issue was for the delay," Cannon said. Otherwise, they would have blamed INDOT or they would have blamed the town and we didn't feel like the blame should be placed on us."
Cannon says the town heard from Comcast Thursday and were told work will start Friday. Relocation is expected to be done by October 20.
Cannon says some of the project has been able to proceed, and the area affected by Comcast is west of Ronald Reagan Parkway.
The town says they are hoping for an official release from INDOT about an updated completion date for the project soon. WRTV will update this story when that information becomes available.
